A study of the arguments for and against teaching controversial literature in high school

The availability of all kinds of books at every corner and drug store, easily accessible to students, has led some educators to believe that schools have led some educators to believe that schools have the responsibility to teach their students how to read dangerous, difficult fiction intelligently. This mode of action among some educators is rejected by a conservative group that sees graver dangers for the students in reading the normally problematic modern novel. The purpose of this paper is to study and present the principal issues involved in the controversy. An evaluation of the arguments of both sides will be made and a conclusion will be drawn up based on the mind of the Church in these matters. The study takes a kind of comparison between the prepositions put up by both the conservative and the modern mod.es of thought. I have limited myself to the views of four eminent Catholic critic and educators whom I believe are representative of their group. Their opinions on the problem have been repeatedly voiced out in our leading Catholic periodicals in over the last twenty-five years. Some facts concerning these authorities follow presently to show \u27their active role in the field of education and literature