On Literature and Teaching

  ‘The old can talk till they’re blue in the face about the spiritual satisfaction to be found in art and literature, but when you’re young there’s a lot more fun to be got out of being with a girl than by listening to a sonata’ (S. Maugham, in the 1920s) When it comes to selecting texts for class, teachers always face the same dilemmas: should we choose books the learners will like? Books that learners will relate to? Books that are educational, say, of the historical type? Books that have a pedagogical bend, for example about racism or bullying? Books that are well-known, books that have won a prize, books from famous authors, books from the canon? Or should we, perhaps, let the learners themselves decide what to read? From their own choice, or from a list compiled by a teacher, usually comprising dozens of titles if not many more?  All those aspects of the ‘text-selection dilemma’ are problematic for one or another reason. All of them require further differences being made, wh