Reply #8: Obviously, there are problems with...

[heliarc]

expecting everyone's standards to be your own, but there are some really really dark novels that I think should be mandatory reading at the High School level, maybe not 9th grade, but at 11th and 12th grade, I think that Students should be reading, books like Light in August, and Last Exit to Brooklyn/Requiem for a Dream. There're so many hard terrible lessons about sexuality and addiction that young people need to be learning from literature NOT from their everyday lives. The sad part is that books with Dark themes help young readers to work out the moral problems with extreme decisions and witness the consequences. It was a very important part of my education having great English teachers who gave me difficult and morally challenging material to read. I'm better for it, and I side with the teacher in this case.