The refugee crisis in Syria, gun violence, poverty, and global conflicts are major current events in the world today. These events are usually not addressed in the school environment and should be acknowledged and understood by students. English classes are a great place for students to learn and argue current events. In a variety of articles offering different viewpoints on school literature, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Michael Smith, Hannah Richardson, and Rebekah Shoaf debate various perspectives on whether and how canons of literature should be used in classrooms. Class discussions and books currently used in the Stevenson English curriculum offer views of the value of canons and other books. An English curriculum that primarily teaches canonical texts imprisons high school students…show more content… Canons are mainly written by white men from the Western culture, not from many people of color. In Rebekah Shoaf’s article, “Why I Wouldn’t Teach Huck Finn Anymore: Course Design as a Sociopolitical Act”, she described her experiences as a teacher to a classroom filled with students of color and raised up a valid point: “Why not show my students literary worlds where people of color make choices, have agency, overcome oppression, fight back, challenge the status quo, or transcend their unjust surroundings?”. She wanted to teach her diverse classroom the real world and how reading certain books can educate them about their future. With a curriculum focusing on canons, her students don’t connect with them, which is predominantly because of the prominent white protagonists in the novels. This is important because without relatable characters for the students, there is rarely any interest in the books
