The Great Gatsby

So, this semester Benjamin has a new class. Reading. Before now they had lumped reading and English into one class, but the seventh grade is big enough this second half of the year to justify hiring a new teacher and so reading is it. Benjamin came home from school this week and said that they were going to be reading a new classic every two weeks and the first three books were "The Great Gatsby," "Animal Farm," and "Great Expectations." First up, "The Great Gatsby." Benjamin is already more then halfway through it, no surprise there, it's not a very thick book. Today he looked up at me and asked, "Who decided this thing was a classic anyway? It's boring! Nothing is happening!"

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing.

I'm with him on one thing though. Who does get to decide which books are classics? Any chance at all I can get on that committee?

PS. I know that the book titles should be underlined, but I couldn't figure out how to do it, so I did the next best thing.

PPS. We didn't read "The Great Gatsby" until tenth grade. I'm not totally sure Benjamin is ready to deal with the subject matter. Let's face it. All that they do in the whole book is drink, party and sleep around. But I'm not going to make a fuss. Benjamin is able to handle the book on a pure technical level and he and I will simply have a talk once he's finished. "Animal Farm" is another one like that. I know that he knows it's about communism, but I'm not sure he knows what communism is. I guess we'll figure it all out together.