[PYTASH] Chapter 1

At this point, the classics vs. young adult literature debate is more than belabored as we have discussed this quite a bit during our education classes in the past. Jago's view on YA lit. actually surprises me and I wonder how this view will continue to show through the book. While in our class last semester, the author had a more liberal view on the matter, Jago is stern believer in using the classics to learn and YA is simply pleasure reading. I definitely agree with this, but not to the extent she seems to in the way she voices her opinion on it.

I would love to spend the entire year studying the classics in a high school classroom, but students simply aren't interested in it enough. There needs to be a way to hook them in. Themes don't change over the years. We're still the same humans dealing with the same identity struggle we always have. There will always be a contemporary piece that reflects well the same thematic concepts of a classic that would interest the reader more. You can then pair it with a classic and get them interested in both stories as they are similar and they'll see the worthwhileness of the one they're not interested in.