Hello readers! Sometimes I have a reading experience that is just ripe for discussion and I can’t help but want to share it with the world immediately. Today’s newsletter is about one of those books and reading experiences.
It all started with one of my best friends texting me yesterday morning that her son (and therefore my son, since they go to school together) had been assigned to read The Great Gatsby in English class and WHY? This dear friend is a longtime professional educator and is one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the topics of educational policy and literacy. She’s one of my most trusted sources on all things teaching and learning, so when she said she was re-reading the book via audio to figure out why it is deemed valuable for teenagers in this current age / hellscape, I cursed her and then begrudgingly said I’m in. Cursed her because I was in the middle of listening to a quite delightful romance featuring a single mom and professional baseball player, so switching to Fitzgerald was a BIG audio sacrifice. BIG.
I believe that the last time I experienced TGG was in my AP Lit class in high school, but perhaps I’m wrong ~ I know I read it sometime in high school or college and have read ABOUT it a lot since then. But the details, as always, had fled, leaving me with just vibes, Daisy, and the green light. I decided to listen to the book, but also grabbed a paper copy while at the public library yesterday morning, which resulted in a great discussion with the two staff members at the desk. I LOVE MY LIBRARY.
Now, before I say a word about the book itself, please know that the district in which this book is mandatory reading is ALSO a district in which there are *very concerned parents* who have lots of thoughts and feelings about students being asked to read about people of marginalized identities. It also has at least one loud community member who would like to forbid things like (gasp) Pride flags in the schools. Also know that OF COURSE I don’t want ANY books restricted in schools, and I think that any reading or listening experience would have *some* value, despite it possibly boring some kids to sleep. I don’t want books removed from schools or reading lists. Period. I’m a school librarian, remember. This is the (professional) hill on which I die.
But…… after taking a look at my hastily typed and unedited notes recorded while listening to The Great Gatsby via 2.22x on Hoopla, doesn’t it seem a little funny that while a Pride flag or reading about police brutality might irreparably harm our children, this canonical content is deemed mandatory? Again, I do NOT want to remove The Great Gatsby from the reading list. Just pointing out the hypocrisy.
My parental advice is to simply tell the reluctant kids to listen to it at 2.22x to get through it as quickly as possible and hopefully the teachers do a REAL good job of explaining why all the Nazi-esque commentary re: Nordic races and Jewish people is horrendous, and that women really DO have value in society and also, infidelity is not a generally accepted thing in most relationships and don’t break your mistress’ nose by punching her in the face, and also hit and run is wrong and please don’t shoot people dead because of relationship drama?
From an educator’s standpoint, I would prefer that if this book *MUST* be taught to 17-year-olds, then perhaps it could be a whole-class read aloud with intense moderation and discussion by the professional educators, with independent reading also assigned from a vast list of choice titles that could be used to make connections to the whole-class read aloud. I’m really passionate about the fact that our educational system has things completely backwards ~ intense literary analysis should ONLY come after kids have cemented a love of reading, except for brief teacher-led sessions with short passages or whole-class read alouds. In our current dire state of national reading habits, our number one priority should be getting kids to READ ~ anything and everything. Only after fully developing that in elementary school (and alongside continued dedicated time to 100% choice reading through 12th grade) should deeper analysis of a mandated full text be introduced. Forcing teens who detest reading to wade through and examine every word of The Great Gatsby under a microscope certainly isn’t the answer to declining test scores.
However, after being an educator for almost 20 years and having my own three children in various school for 14 years, I have honed the skill of being a teacher at work and a parent at home. My husband and I trust that our kids having different experiences at school than we might have chosen will make them well-rounded humans who are tolerant of, and open to, varying opinions.
My teen has had and will have zero interest in talking to me about this book. To him, it’s yet another pointless educational exercise designed to torture him before he can get to sports practices or his job ~ and me spending a weekend reading and writing about it is absolutely bananas. The other two kids WOULD talk to me about it, but also tend to view required school reading with a skeptical eye that protects / prevents their brains from taking any of it too seriously. Remember, though, even with all that wild content, all any of these youth will ever remember from TGG is Daisy and the green light.
TO CEMENT MY THESIS: I do NOT want to remove TGG from the reading list. I’m supremely disturbed that other parents want to restrict what kids read. I detest the hypocrisy of the loud Christian far-right and their increasing involvement in schools and school boards. The Great Gatsby is an eye-rolling example of the white male American canon but is ultimately a product of its time and ultimately mostly harmless given how much attention teens will pay it. Good teachers can certainly teach it meaningfully if allowed to, but need to ensure that they are nurturing a love of choice reading that will stick for life.
If you would like to read more on why or why not and how The Great Gatsby should be taught in schools, I also texted my friend a brief selection ~ here they are!
NOTE: If you care about freedom in reading and literary activism, you must subscribe to
and also from Book Riot. is the foremost journalist in this space and has recently covered not only troubling things in a district very near to me, but also the drama of my hometown public library board. She’s THE person who will uncover the most minute details and expose them to the world when it comes to who is trying to ban books, and she’s also the person who has made me scared to write emails at school . I’m so deeply grateful she is doing this work.If you liked this post and want to support my work, please consider sharing this edition of my newsletter with your reading friends, buy me a coffee, or upgrade your subscription to paid! Just sharing is a huge help, though ~ thank you ☺️
Thanks for reading,
I love to hear from readers, so please do reach out to me with questions or feedback at mindfullibrarian@substack.com . If we aren’t already connected on Goodreads, I would love to see you there as well!
Appreciate all of this. Vibes, Daisy, green light is basically what I really remember of TGG as well. I can't even touch the book bans/challenges/Christian Nationalist interjection in schools because I'll just end up ranting, but trust I am sympathetic. I'm always so interested in what/how books are taught in schools. I really enjoyed much of what I read as a student though that was strongly related to my being a good student who enjoyed reading and discussing books in the advanced classes I was in. Getting kids to read is SUCH an uphill battle and I would love to see schools approach it from the perspective of just promoting reading and supporting readers. There are certainly lots of learning that can be done in a variety of ways. My oldest is in 8th grade (last year of middle school in our district) and so far I have really appreciated his ELA experience. The curriculum/approach does seem to have been thoughtfully updated. We'll see what happens once we get to HS next year.
I love that you took the time to reread this in order to understand what your son will be studying and taking in. My daughter is far from this grade but I am remembering this for when she begins to be assigned books for studies. I, too, agree that all books should be available. Knowledge should be available and accessible in the form of books for our children. I LOVE the library and I’m thankful that my daughter shares this love with me. We spend many days of the week there! You have a rewarding career and position.