Imagine you tell your parents about an issue you’re having with your friends, and they tell you how they would’ve solved it in an ineffective way and with a lot more Art Thou’s thrown in there. That is the equivalent of having high schoolers learn how to write through reading classics. What does Romeo and Juliet have to do with modern writing? You’re teaching kids to hate reading—and going out of your way to do so.

I love reading, I always have. But I cannot honestly say that there isn’t a book I’ve had for literature class that I didn’t cliff notes a chapter or two. The reason for this isn’t out of laziness or out of incompetence, but because a book with language that hasn’t been used in the past century doesn’t resonate in my 16-year-old mind, call me stupid.

I understand certain authors, novelists, and poets hold a certain air of precision our newest generation of authors doesn’t have. But if you expect a 14-year-old to appreciate it—let alone understand it, you would be in over your head. Telling children the only way they can be smart is by reading classics instead of books with a similar message, beautiful syntax, and even some complex meaning and metaphors, when the only difference is the publication date, is idiotic in and of itself.

I can quote many lines from many novels, but the one that has for some reason stuck with me the most is, “In a solitary life, there are rare moments where another soul dips near yours as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation he was to me.” (I will be honest, I Googled that to check the punctuation). Now let me give you a moment to ponder when that book was published…2018.

Just because something is old does not mean it’s good. Like cheese; stopped saying aged cheese. I don’t want to think about how cheese is just spoiled milk the same way I don’t want to think about the meaning behind killing a mentally challenged man in a field (Of Mice and Men) and then thinking, “You know who would love this, 9^th grade children.”

Not to mention, nearly every classic lacks, let just say the ‘nuance’ of our culture today. Like how said Of Mice and Men uses the n-word a million times, discriminates against women, is ableist….I could go on forever. But you know, maybe I’m just lazy.