To Kill a Mockingbird, The Secret Life of Bees, The Lord of the Flies, and Romeo and Juliet. Students and staff at Camas High School (CHS) discuss modernizing literary reading material in English classes in an effort to stay updated on relevant social issues as well as to introduce another perspective into literary education.

The main differing opinion voiced by staff and students is whether the current literature should be switched out for more relevant content. This stems from the introduction of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas in freshman English classes at CHS. Many students express they wish the content in English was more relevant to their personal lives, yet others appreciate the study of older passages.

Senior Amanda Hutchins said, “I think that including historical literature is great as long as you can find a way to connect it to your life currently. Otherwise, the meaning of it kind of gets lost so it can be hard to relate.”

AP Literature and English 10 teacher Connie Dignan said, “I think that if we are reading

books that are solid pieces of literature, in a way, it’s our job as teachers to help bring them to their lives and to find relevance to their lives. I am never opposed to looking at a new piece of literature or adding new pieces of literature or changing things around, I think that’s always a discussion we should be having, but we also need to bring every piece we read to relevance.”

A highly-discussed idea is replacing what is known as classic literature with more modern books.  The opinions on this within CHS are diverse. Some find the books labeled “classic” are based on one singular perspective, while modern literature is very inclusive and offers many different perspectives for people from different backgrounds, religions, cultures, experiences, etc. This makes modern literature more appealing to those who seek to relate to the stories they read. 

CHS teacher-librarian Tonia Albert said, “I think that we need to add in some more modern literature. If you look at our classic literature a lot of times it’s a very single view based and it’s nice to have different viewpoints come through in literature.”

When asked about modernizing literature, students and staff most often considered the parallels between To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Since these books are often used to address the same issues in society, with the latter being more modern and the former being described as a “classic”, this stands as the perfect example of the differing opinions on the modernization of reading material for the English curriculum. At CHS, some wanted to keep To Kill A Mockingbird, while others felt the curriculum was better off without. 

Hutchins said, “To Kill A Mockingbird is definitely one I would want to keep because it has a message I think everyone should hear and is really important.”

Senior Katelyn Flolo said, “I know freshman year, my class read TKAM, and the other class read THUG, and I feel like THUG had similar themes but was still more relevant to today.” 

In the end, the consensus appears to be that there are pros and cons to more or less

modernization and CHS students benefit most from encouragement to seek literature in as many forms, perspectives, and points of view as possible. 

Albert said, “I really like that they partnered The Hate U Give with To Kill a Mockingbird because then you’re still getting a classic but then you’re also getting a modern feel.”