English is a required course for all grade levels for both semesters of each year. Prior to the school year, students are required to read a novel over the summer. Students from ranging ages have their own thoughts on the books that are required to be read during the school year. 

Senior Roderick Marzo said  “[The books are] well-written, but are so disconnected from us that we find them dry and formulaic. We’ve read NY Times Bestsellers and novels born centuries before our forefathers, but that means nothing if it felt as though modern stories told it better. These selected readings are picked for what they accomplished during their time, but man would I rather read something else.”

Students believe that the current books are outdated and lack variety in authors with a majority being white males. The students have expressed how they would like new novels that are written by people of various backgrounds. 

“Until this year, our selection was really dry. We didn’t have a lot of books written by people of color, and the one time we did it was over summer break, not a lot of people read them. I also feel like we read tragedies exclusively, even though a book doesn’t have to be tragic to be a good read. It would also be nice if teachers could provide us trigger warnings for sensitive material,” said junior Neha Samuel.

Students have expressed how they want a change in the curriculum, but also the teachers have taken notice of the outdated novels we read. 

English teacher, Kathryn Kupchek said “I think it’s better to have some variety, which is why I think having some of the classics mixed in with some of the modern ones like ‘They Called Us Enemy’ and ‘Just Mercy’ makes it more relevant and up to date on current events.”

The English department is starting to reconsider the novels read during freshman year so that the book topics have more variety and students are able to relate to them. 

“We’ve already started to reconsider ‘The Hate U Give’, we are already looking at different options to have for summer reading. Instead of ‘The Other Wes Moore’ we were going to put in ‘Turtle All the Way Down’ that was the alternative text for the summer reading. We are going to switch it because it deals with students and teens with anxiety and mental health. It’s a current event topic that I think most teens deal with and relate to,” said Kupchek.

Although students in regular English are unable to pick their own novels to read, there are many electives that are available to take where you can choose what you would like to read. 

Kupchek said “I wish students sometimes did have more choice in terms of what they got to read, but it’s hard to make a curriculum that fits everyone. That’s why electives such as Modern Fiction are so great for people who like to read and want to read more.”