An article on Sunday about one English teacher’s conversion from
assigning classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Lord of the
Flies” to a method that allowed her students to choose their own
class reading, is eliciting passionate comments from readers —
more than 400. Some loved the method embraced by Lorrie McNeill,
who teaches seventh- and eighth-graders in Jonesboro, Ga.;
others detested it. A reader who identified himself as Greg from
North Carolina responded to the article with the following: “if
we aren’t going to consider the quality of what is being read,
then a love of reading is no more or less beneficial than a love
of television-watching, slot-car-racing, or pizza-eating. The
student who loves reading ‘Captain Underpants’ but who is never
forced to move beyond that material has done nothing to prepare
for a life of active, intelligent, inquisitive citizenship
(which is something training in the humanities ought to prepare
us for) and has been poorly served by her educators. “It sounds
as thoug