Should classic literature be taught in 21st century schools?

Classic literature and shared emotional response

Question: Should classic literature be taught in 21st century schools?
Position1 of 3›: Students should read classical literature
Argument‹2 of 2: Classic literature and shared emotional response

By reading classic literature that has been taught in schools for decades, students have the opportunity to experience the same emotional responses as the students who came before them.

The argument

Proponents of this position argue that the lasting value of literature in school is emotional rather than analytical. It's not the analysis that sticks with us through the years, but the emotional response that comes from reading some of the greatest literature of all time; what a reader retains decades later is how a book made them feel, not the essay they once wrote about it. That response is amplified by being had together. When a class reads a book like Where the Red Fern Grows, The Diary of a Young Girl, or other emotional stories, they tend to experience a shared emotional response — the same passage landing on a whole room of people at the same moment, which is something reading alone cannot produce. The particular claim made for classics is that the sharing extends beyond the classroom. These are two examples of pieces of literature that have been read in classrooms for generations, and this contributes to the expansion of the shared emotional response by connecting people of different generations. A book carried across decades of readers gives a student something in common not only with their classmates but with everyone who was set the same book before them. The reason this matters is what literature is for. It not only connects classmates in a particular moment, but it has a way of bringing people together by sharing their own experiences with a piece of literature. At its core, literature is about emotion. It is a piece of art that is meant to elicit a certain feeling, understanding, or perspective from the reader, and it is meant to entertain, educate, and broaden the horizons of those who read. By only reading contemporary literature in the classroom, that emotional connection is limited to those who are present in the moment. Because classic literature creates a shared emotional response that reaches across generations as well as across a room, students should read classical literature.

Context

Scholars such as Diana Omigie have long argued that 'common mechanisms' exist in literature and the arts, which engender empathy amongst their audiences. This view comes from deep analysis into the psychological impact of the arts, which lead people to form emotional attachments to them.

Premises

[P1]What stays with readers over the years is not literary analysis but the emotional response that great literature evokes. [P2] When a class reads an emotionally powerful classic like Where the Red Fern Grows or The Diary of a Young Girl, students share that emotional response with one another. [P3] Because these classics have been read in classrooms for generations, that shared response also connects students to readers across time, which contemporary literature alone cannot do. [C] Therefore, because classic literature creates a shared emotional response across generations, students should read classical literature in school.

Counter-arguments

Critics reply that a shared emotional response is produced by powerful literature of any era, not by classics specifically. Modern novels can move a class as deeply — often more accessibly and with more obvious relevance to students' lives — so the emotional-connection point does not by itself favour the classical canon. They add that "read for generations" cuts both ways: canonical inertia can entrench a narrow set of voices and exclude diverse perspectives. The cross-generational connection is one value among several, and the sibling position that combines classics with contemporary work captures it without sacrificing relevance and range.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] A shared emotional response is produced by powerful literature of any era; modern novels can evoke it as strongly, and often more accessibly, so this does not favour classics specifically. [Rejecting P3] Cross-generational familiarity is one value, but it can also entrench a narrow canon; combining classics with contemporary literature captures the connection without sacrificing relevance and diversity.