To this day I have a slightly irrational dislike of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, despite the fact that I fully realize it is objectively and historically an important book. I can trace the origins of my annoyance back to high school when my junior lit class was tasked with reading it. I started out with a sense of optimism since I love Hawthorne's short stories, but trying to finish it became more of a chore than anything else. After all, it's pretty difficult to enjoy something that is thrust upon you just to earn a grade that won't really mean very much a month or two later.

The lack of choice seems to be the root of the problem here. We've all been in a classroom when the teacher announces the assigned reading, and the class kind of collectively groans on the inside. By being forced to read something, a sense of obligation is present through the whole experience, which puts an annoying barrier between the reader and the book itself.

This is something that has lightly bothered me for years because reading/writing is my favorite thing to do, and I shouldn't be affected by the academic nature of assigned book reports. Especially since the books assigned are always classics of American literature like Frankenstein and The Catcher in the Rye. These are books that I read outside of class and truly enjoyed exploring and then felt bored when they were assigned.

Another facet of annoyance seems to be the way these books are taught. There's true artistry present in taking a book as incendiary and unreliably narrated as "Catcher..." and making it seem boring, yet some teachers have the skill required to pull it off. Most of this boils down to the way the teacher presents their opinion on the book's themes, expecting the class to nod and agree silently then memorize what they were told for the test.

Being a kid/teenager is basically characterized by these types of moments. You're kind of viewed as less of your own person and more of a malleable vessel to put knowledge into. This is reasonably fine for math classes and other subjects where you have to have a rigid understanding of basic functions in order to solve the problems. Literature doesn't come with this prerequisite. The only prerequisite is that the reader needs to have a series of life experiences and a vivid imagination to bring to the text.

When a classroom is denying the importance of a student's formative experiences and telling them how they should feel about a book, whether they mean to do this or not, it starts to make sense why students don't want to read. Reading is one of the most personal artistic activities and you can't grade something so subjective.

How do you feel about assigned books?