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The other day, one of my students told me that she’d been assigned the lyrics of Kendrick Lamar for her high school English class. It was the first time I had encountered a high school English assignment involving an author with whom I was wholly unfamiliar. But can we even call rapper and songwriter Kendrick Lamar an author, his lyrics literature? Call me a snob, but I would argue that we cannot and should not, especially at a level so introductory to the English literary canon as high school. High school curricula are meant to present a broad and foundational overview of the important tenets of each core field of knowledge: mathematics, science, literature, history and language.
I want my students to engage with the foundation of our literary traditions.
Courtesy Lisa Libes/LinkedIn
Lisa Libes, founder Invictus Prep.
We teach concepts in algebra and calculus that will establish a solid base of knowledge should a student decide to pursue higher levels of mathematics in college or graduate school. We do not substitute shapes and colors for the core principles of algebra — that would leave a student lost should they decide to pursue a degree in math or any other STEM subject.
So why have we swapped out Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dickens for figures who are — at best — ancillary to literary study? Shouldn’t we teach students about the works of the Shakespeares and the Chaucers that English literature is based on — rather than present them with the words of contemporary songwriters such as Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift, whose works might belong entirely to a different category?
As educators, the fate of tomorrow’s change-makers rests in our hands, and it is our goal to rear the next generation of successful thinkers. There is no better way to teach students to think than to encourage them to wrestle with the sort of complex ideas that we find in time-tested literature. We must not, therefore, alter our intellectual standards or deem literature unimportant and pretentious, especially for students who are at such a crucial period of their intellectual development. It is our job to guide students to aspire to intellectual mountain tops rather than confining them to more familiar valleys.
Many high school students are already consuming Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift on a daily basis without the intervention of the education system. In my view, using course time to analyze the lyrics of these popular artists not only precludes students from uncovering new knowledge but also encourages them to consider the fleeting music of our time — most of which, I predict, will be forgotten in the span of a generation — as great literature.
At a certain point, we do need to start distinguishing between foundational literature and the musical byproducts of our contemporary culture.
New York University can offer as many Taylor Swift courses as it wants, and there might be nothing wrong with studying Taylor Swift as literature — but that should not happen until students have attained a robust understanding of the literary tradition.
At the high school level, we should challenge younger generations to understand the core facets of the humanistic tradition by presenting them with an accurate picture of what the field of literary study has always been:
A profound exploration of the human condition through words and stories.
These stories, expressed through vivid works of literature, will, in turn, compel them to think critically.
I teach writing to high schoolers through my college consulting firm. When preparing students to write their college essays, I always lead with literature — Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, Fitzgerald, for instance — for I believe that developing strong communication skills lies in understanding the writing styles and messages of these great thinkers and writers.
Many of my students, who will soon be sending in applications to America’s elite educational institutions, can no longer string a coherent sentence together without using AI tools such as ChatGPT or Grammarly. While there might be nothing wrong with using these tools as guidebooks and coaches, doing so must not come at the expense of developing strong writing skills, which are the cornerstone of strong communication. A generation that has lost the ability to write will lose the ability to effect meaningful societal change, for great change lies in effectively sharing ideas with others.
The students I work with are our future doctors, engineers and lawyers, among many other professions. In diluting their high school English curricula, we are collectively abandoning humanistic study as a society, letting go of our dedication to creating strong thinkers and visionaries. While not all teachers have swapped out Shakespeare for Swift, the presence of rappers and songwriters on an English syllabus is a telling sign that we have begun to change the standards of critical thinking and no longer emphasize the value of enduring communication.
I always prompt my college-bound students to challenge themselves intellectually. Instead of endlessly scrolling through Taylor-Swift TikToks, why not pick up a copy of Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”? As I send my students off to college every year, many of them look back and thank me for encouraging them to make it through this literary behemoth, for there is a certain ineffable satisfaction to challenging yourself to engage critically with ideas: It makes us all stronger thinkers and communicators.
And I guarantee you that any 15-year-old can comprehend serious literature with the right mindset and the right mentorship.
As English teachers, our goal is to challenge our students to think critically in order to create the strong communicators of tomorrow — and hope that in the process, they will view literature not as pretentious but as beautiful and profound.
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Liza Libes founded her college consulting startup, Invictus Prep, in New York City. Her writing has appeared in The American Spectator, Kveller, Jewish Women of Words and elsewhere. Libes founded The Pens and Poison Project to promote the literary arts and to foster appreciation for the written word. Pens and Poison has reached over 200k poetry lovers across the world through engaging YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify content. In 2024, Liza unveiled Pens and Poison Magazine to provide young poets and writers with a platform for their work.
This story about high school English was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
