Why do we have to read such depressing books in school? Grades actually go down because children read less. Some of these novels contain adult material that young people simply are not emotionally equipped to assimilate. Sad and depressing books cause an increase in anxiety and depression in teenagers. Who decided that these incredibly depressing dark themes were going to be on these school reading lists? parents who would never allow their children to play violent video games allow them to read violent books every day. I believe books should inspire rather than depress. It’s time we seek a balance of classic literature and depressing literature and start to read things with an uplifting message in middle and high school English classes.

During the summer of sixth-grade I read a few Harry Potter’s and had a great time. I showed up for the first day of school in seventh grade, and the teacher plops down Where the Red Fern Grows, and suddenly you’re talking about the metaphors and symbolism of death. It didn’t take long before I stopped looking at books as wonderful presents and started looking at them as a sort of low level PTSD experience.

Since the beginning of seventh grade the most depressing books I’ve ever read include: Where the Red Fern Grows, The Kite Runner, Ann Frank Diary of a Young Girl, Of Mice and Men, My Sisters Keeper, A Child Called It, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Fences, The Outsiders, The Pearl Diver, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, The Catcher in the Rye, The Scarlet Letter, 1984, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Raisin in the Sun, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Sun Also Rises, Black Boy, The Whipping Boy, Medea and The Grapes of Wrath.

I did not choose to read a single one of these books, and I have read them all. I believe teenagers would read more if kids enjoyed the stories. I don’t believe we should strip depressing books out of the curriculum. But when just about every single book on the reading list is depressing, kids begin to equate reading with sadness. I believe this kind of negative experience is why less than 40% of American adults have read any novel in the past year. There are plenty of books out there that can touch your soul with inspiration rather than desperation and depression. I believe that the English classes of America need to delve into the human condition of man. Sometimes the human condition is not positive, happy or optimistic, but sometimes it is. We need to strike a better balance.

 

I believe we need to keep in mind that we are dealing with children. Children have tender souls and they need love, comfort, acceptance and reassurance. Frankly children need hope. Depression, anxiety, and suicide are realities that children turn to when they lose hope. approximately 20% of teens experience significant depression before they reach adulthood. According to suicide.org, a teen takes his or her own life every 100 min. in the United States. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people age 15 to 24. Only 30% of depressed teens are being treated for it. A study at San Diego State University found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with significant anxiety and depression as youth of the same age who were studied during the Great Depression era. It might surprise you to know that on the checklist upon leaving the hospital after a suicide attempt parents are asked to remove depressing and sad reading material from their home. It is the third item on the checklist underneath removing guns and knives. As a society, we shouldn’t have to wait to remove depressing reading material from anxious teens until after their failed suicide attempt. There is a great quote and I have no idea where I read it, but it is about hope and learning about hope and learning about uplifting stories that teach lifelong lessons. It goes “When you’re trying to learn how to swim, you don’t read books about drowning”. The same holds true for reading, when you want to teach about hope and love you do not read about rape and incest.

I have a friend, whose parents do not allow him to play Halo on the Xbox with my brother and I. The rationale for this is that it is too violent and he learns nothing from playing. The same parents allow him to read the middle and high school reading list. In the game Halo, US military forces protect the citizens of the United States and abroad from an alien invasion. The first-person shooter game where you get to save people and it’s fun. there is actually very little gore in the game, and you never see aliens suffer they simply fall down . So my friend is protected, safe and warm in his upper-middle-class home with parents who adore him or is he just missing out on a fun video game? He has read To Kill a Mockingbird , where a black man wrongly accused of rape is set up and murdered knowingly in front of a whole town is horrible. Life is brought to a close, but no shock at all from anyone in the community. Later the same year our class read The Kite Runner. In this book a boy is brutalized and raped and he lives a daily life of horror that we can only imagine. The plot of the next book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings actually made me physically ill. An eight-year-old little girl is raped. I had nightmares about this book for weeks. Saving the world from aliens isn’t sounding so bad, is it?

What teacher or administrator decided what passes as fine literature and what is filth. For the sake of filth or for the sake of indulging in angst with no other reason I can rationalize. I believe the school system’s insistence on making our children wake from the dream of their childhood and turning them into adults, too soon, has has caused significant depression and anxiety in today’s youth. By ninth grade children have become hardened and immune to further trauma. The depressing reading continues under the guise of preparing them for life’s inevitable difficulties that they often aren’t yet able to comprehend. It is as if, unless a book makes you cry. It can’t possibly be considered literature.

All books can teach you something. A book can teach you about solving problems, dealing with conflicts, history, bravery and perseverance. Books can also teach you narcissism, greed, violence for violence sake and sadistic torture. Some adults believe that the end justifies the means. It is a complex moral dilemma. If you allow children to make some of their own choices it could become a teaching opportunity. If instead of simply assigning a book you gave kids a list of choices that included some more uplifting, even if they are more difficult to read, books, you would be surprised how many kids would choose them over there shorter, easier depressing ones. The matching of a child with the perfect book is a formula for making a lifelong reader. Not every book is right for every person, but providing a wide range of reading choices is vital to learning and imagination. I believe giving kids choices will allow them to become more resilient and capable adults. I implore all parents to speak openly with their children about the effects of depressing books and their kids lives. I also ask the children speak openly with their English teachers about allowing more choices in novels. In an effort to combat depression in teens.