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“Good morning, senior English students. Today I’d like to introduce the next novel we’re going to study. A few disclaimers: In it you will encounter adultery, murder, suicide, alcohol abuse, organized crime, domestic violence, the upper class belittling the lower classes, and a few racist tropes.”

Did I really dare to teach that book? You bet I did, for many years. It’s one of my favorites. It’s The Great Gatsby, and in addition to having a juicy plot it also has some of the most beautiful prose in American literature. It’s wonderful for the study of imagery and symbolism. Its narrator provides a strong moral center, and we as readers learn the same lessons about integrity, maturity, and character that he does.

“Still worried about the content of this novel? How about a play instead? Here’s one that’s in your textbook. Be prepared for witches, ghosts, more than a dozen murders (including of children), suicide, political corruption, and extreme violence in war (a beheading). It’s also a cautionary tale about greed and ambition. So does Macbeth sound like a winner?

“No? Let’s go back even further in time then when authors surely were more conservative. I’ve got a short story collection for you. The morals in short stories are easy to spot.  Something for everyone, right? Of course here and there you’ll find some physical violence, a fair amount of promiscuous sex (sometimes graphic), and a whole lot of religious hypocrisy and corruption. Yikes, even The Canterbury Tales, also in your textbook, might cause an English teacher to tremble.”

Because we are in the midst of Banned Books Week 2024, I’m reminiscing today about some of the literature I most enjoyed teaching, much of which would elicit some “trigger warnings” in today’s parlance. I believe it would be nigh impossible to find titles of “literary merit” (to use a College Board term) that didn’t offend some high school students’ or parents’ sensibilities.

I don’t deny that media specialists and teachers need to be careful about what books they make available to students. They have to utilize common sense about what developing minds are ready for. Sometimes an inappropriate (for a certain age – and also a very subjective term) book might slip through the cracks without a full review, because it’s on a best seller list, and end up on a library shelf. Our board policy contains protocols for the right to challenge material. See Divisive Concepts Complaint Resolution Process (Policy IKBB) and Material Harmful to Minors Complaint Resolution Process (IKBC). 

Parents do have a right and indeed an obligation to monitor their child’s reading. If, for instance, my daughter had wanted to read Fifty Shades of Grey as a middle schooler, I would have told her that I didn’t think she was ready for that. In fact, my daughter did read that book as a twenty-something. Her review: she hated it. This was a young lady who had read all of the “triggering” books assigned to her in high school, and I’m proud of the discerning reader she has become.

I would not have promoted a book like Fifty Shades of Grey to my high school students because I couldn’t see any literary merit in it. But if it makes a reader out of a mature individual who usually doesn’t read, then I can’t quarrel with it in that situation. 

So, parents, do keep up with what your child is reading, but also be open to the possibility that a good teacher can guide your student through an analysis of a book such as Huckleberry Finn or The Catcher in the Rye without damaging them. The values you instill at home should provide the foundation they need to grapple with the complexities of real life – which is also what great literature can do.