Every book the Baby Boomers consider “classic” should be eradicated from the school curricula:
American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014. A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will make it compulsory for at least 70 per cent of books studied to be non-fiction, in an effort to ready pupils for the workplace. Books such as JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird will be replaced by “informational texts” approved by the Common Core State Standards.
It’s not an accident that neither Salinger nor Lee published anything of note beside their one-hit wonders. Neither of them were either good or interesting authors. They both struck a chord with posers. Salinger resonated with those who wanted to think of themselves as alienated and cool, Lee with those who wanted to think of themselves as morally superior.
Insulation manuals will be of greater benefit to the young reader than either work. So would the yellow pages. It’s about as significant as hearing that Bright Lights Big City and The Clan of the Cave Bear will no longer be imposed upon innocent, unsuspecting young minds.