Annie Holmquist over at BetterEd.org dug up the curriculum manual from a 1908 middle school reading list to compare it with modern reading lists.
She compared the 1908 document, which she uncovered in the Minnesota Historical Society archives, with a reading list for 7th and 8th graders from one of the Twin Cities’ best school district’s curriculum for this year.
In comparing the two lists, she identified three major difference in the reading lists: the time period, the themes and the reading level. For example, students today read more current selections, and 100 years ago they read more books that were at least 20 years old at the time. In addition, she identified that today young readers are given books with more familiar casual language and have less to dissect.
“Unless we give our students challenging material to dissect, process, and study, how can we expect them to break out of the current poor proficiency ratings and advance beyond a basic reading level?,” she concludes. “My takeaway from this comparison? It’s great that schools today have students read contemporary literature. But we still need to make sure that students also read good literature from the past and are sufficiently challenged.”