High School English Synthesis Essay

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Pages: 4

There should not be specific texts that all students of high school English must read. Despite the fact that the United States has no required texts, most teachers present their students with the same literature merely based on what pieces have been considered intellectually and literally significant. There should be no common curriculum of high school English classes, because different teachers and students have different needs and interests, and these should be permitted to be explored.
The United States has no required texts, but a significant source still influences what students read. Landow recognizes that the anthologies created by influential critics, museum directors, and their boards of trustees truly dictate what students read (Source
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I do not think that ease of comparison is either beneficial or important to students. A significant part of teaching any subject, particularly English, is knowing how to get students interested and interacting with the material. If texts were pre-determined, although they may be classically revered works, they may not coincide with the interests of the teachers or students, resulting in a dull class. The cultural composition of a class can be just as important in choosing to study certain works as the reading level or sophistication of a class and this could not be accounted for in a system of standardized English (Source E). If books were chosen nationally, they would be have to be chosen so that all students would be able to read them. This would mean that a more sophisticated class would have to be disinterested through the reading of lower level texts while another class may struggle with comprehension. Some may think that required texts would force all students to meet the same standards, but it is more likely that struggling students would simply be discouraged if they were constantly forced to read texts above their level. Standardizing the reading of high school English classes would benefit