Sam Klee, an Aquinas College sophomore, discusses a recent report that revealed a marked decrease in the complexity of works assigned to high-schoolers across the country. Among the findings: Hunger Games and the Twilight series make the Top 40 list of assigned texts. This has implications for students as they enter English classes in college:

[I]f formation is indeed the purpose of education, to stretch limits and stimulate intellectual growth, then students must be genuinely challenged. How can we fairly expect high school graduates to possess the sharpened reading and writing skills necessary for collegiate success if their literary experience has been characterized by books made popular through movie-adaptations? The Lightning Thief will not sufficiently prepare one to read (much less appreciate) Homer or Dante in a college-level humanities classes, nor should it.

Read the rest here.