[Fiji Hill]

Some of the books that were required reading in English classes when I was in high school:

Ninth Grade
The Odyssey/Homer
Julius Caesar/William Shakespeare

Tenth Grade
Great Expectations/Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment/Fyodor Dostoevskii
Huckleberry Finn/Mark Twain
Animal Farm/George Orwell

Eleventh Grade
Moby Dick/Herman Melville
The Scarlet Letter/Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Red Badge of Courage/Stephen Crane
Our Town/Thornton Wilder

[Diago]

A very interesting story from Carl Olsen at Catholic World Report. You need to see the cartoon from the book in question - it appears with the original article here:

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/2328/why_do_some_catholic_schools_require_students_to_read_lousy_vulgar_books.aspx#.UbpdzUnD_IU

So many great Catholic books to read, what a shame. Since Olsen is involved with Ignatius Press and helps make available so many great works, you can certainly understand his outrage.

[traditional1]

The Catholic Schools in the Cleveland area produce the most successful professionals in their careers, regularly.

Whereas they require READING of literature that is counter to church teachings, it teaches what the other side of the coin holds...as opposed to Cleveland Area Public Schools, which teach the Progressive Agenda, dependency on the Gubmint, etc., and produces the low-life inner-city tribal parasite mentality, with no redeeming social value to Society, in general (with Union Teachers that cannot allow skills/proficiency/merit-based performance testing for Union Members).

I would NEVER send my kids to a Cleveland Public School, even if I had to work 3 jobs to do so.....of course, there's NO WAY I would live in Cleveland, so that is not an issue. In suburbia, I would gladly have my kids in St. Edwards, St. Ignatius, Magnificat, etc.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Sounds like something that Andrew Greeley might have written.

[afraidfortherepublic]

My sons’ high school (also Jesuit) assigned many great books for English in the late ‘70s, but I was alarmed when they assigned The Thorn Birds to the seniors. I went in to talk to the teacher (a lay teacher and the only woman my son had throughout his 4 years.)

Her explanation was that this was likely the last novel that our sons would read for the rest of their lives because they would become doctors, engineers, research scientists, etc. and most of their reading would be technical. She wanted them to want to turn to novels for pleasure reading. She also wanted them to know how to treat a woman (apparently the class discussions revolved around Meggie’s abusive and cold husband.)

I don’t know that I bought all that malarkey, but I could see that I wasn’t going to change it. My son grew up to be an engineer who has a knack for writing and who enjoys reading novels. Who’d a thunk?

[afraidfortherepublic]

My sons’ high school (also Jesuit) assigned many great books for English in the late ‘70s, but I was alarmed when they assigned The Thorn Birds to the seniors. I went in to talk to the teacher (a lay teacher and the only woman my son had throughout his 4 years.)

Her explanation was that this was likely the last novel that our sons would read for the rest of their lives because they would become doctors, egieers, research scietists, etc. and most of their reading would be technical. She wanted them to turn to novels for pleasure reading. She also wanted them to know how to treat a woman (apparently the class discussions revolved around Meggie’s abusive and cold husband.)

I don’t know that I bought all that malarkey, but I could see that I wasn’t going to change it. My son grew up to be an engineer who has a knack for writing and who enjoys reading novels. Who’d a thunk?

[SoCal SoCon]

I remember being shocked by all the sex in Brave New World, but at least Aldous Huxley wasn’t a stooge for the sex positive agenda. In fact, judging by Brave New World, just the opposite.

[Salvation]

Here is our Catholic ladies reading group’s list for this next year. We try to vary the genre. I want a Scott Hahn book on it next year, but one lady is vehement about him being too deep.

Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve and a Network of Miracles by Raymond Arroyo

Odd Thomas: An Odd Thomas Novel by Dean Koontz

The Harbinger by Jonathon Cahn

Saint Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton

The Father’s Tale by Michael O’Brien

How to Listen When God Is Speaking by Father Mitch Pacwa

Disciple by E. G. Lewis (book 2 of the Seeds of Christianity series)

For Greater Glory: The True Story of the Cristiada, The Cristero War and Mexico’s Struggle for Religious Freedom by Ruben Quezada

40 Days for Life: Discover What God Has Done…Imagine What He Can Do by David Bereit and Shawn Carney

Characters of the Passion by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

Murder in the Vatican by Ann Margaret Louis

[informavoracious]

The classics are classics for a reason. They speak to every age of the human experience and demonstrate that there is nothing new under the sun, that men have been battling God, one another, and themselves, from the beginning of time.

We now live in a throwaway culture. Missals containing the Word of God, for example, are now tossed in the trash each season instead of being well-worn over the years and treasured. The pulp these young people are reading today will not survive the ages. They won't even survive the decade.

And to think people pay $11K per year to expose their kids to this. Expensive babysitting. But I guess it "preps" them for the apostasy of college.

[Pauli67]

I live in Cleveland. Here is my post which I’ve written on the topic. It contains the email I sent to the President and Principal.

http://contrapauli.blogspot.com/2013/06/eternal-vigilance.html

I advise everyone to do what I did. I actually got a very cordial personal reply from Father Murphy, the President of Ignatius High School.

http://estquodest.com