A "Novel" Approach to College Preparation
Students who are starting college in the fall should take a novel approach to their college preparation.
"The habit of reading is the most important college-preparatory skill a high school student can develop," says Dr. Gary Greive-Carlson, chair of the English Department at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA. "High school students who are planning to attend college ought to be reading every day, apart from the reading they're assigned in school, and that outside reading shouldn't be limited to escapist entertainment."
Many high schools and colleges prepare lists of books and plays that they recommend students read in order to be better prepared for a college curriculum. Here are some suggestions to add to your reading list from professors at colleges and universities around the nation.
It might be best to start with the classics, says Phylis Dryden, associate professor of English at Lebanon Valley College. She suggests Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" and Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn".
"These will prepare a student to continue the study of literature," says Dryden.
Other suggestions for a literary hot sheet include:
"The Federalist Papers" by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. "A collection of 85 essays that is illustrative of the thinking that went into the Constitution. Serious thinking on that document and our constitutional order starts with this work," says C. William Hill, professor of political science at Roanoke College in Salem, VA.
"Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville. "After 125 years, this very readable work still has the capacity to provoke reflection on whether we can be democratic, free, and excellent all at the same time," says Hill.
"World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics" published by NTC Publishing Group. Presents the myths and lore of ancient Greece and Rome, Africa, the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and Asia. "You cannot appreciate--or, often, even understand-- works of classic literature or worthwhile current fiction without a knowledge of the stories passed from generation to generation over thousands of years," says Dianne Comiskey, assistant professor of literature and composition at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI.
Part of this knowledge is the Judeo-Christian tradition contained in the Bible, notes Comiskey. "You have to understand references to original sin, Noah and the flood, and the crucifixion. An accessible English translation of the Bible and any one of a number of volumes that provide our cultural stories should be on high school seniors' reading lists."
"How to Think Straight about Psychology" by Keith Stanovich. "This engaging book not only dispels myths about psychology, it teaches us how to judge the worth of psychological claims found in the popular press and in self-help literature," says Mary Camac, assistant professor of psychology at Roanoke College in Salem, VA.
Students tend to be fairly uneducated when it comes to the third world in general, and have only a sort of "cartoon" knowledge of European intervention and colonization.
Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart,"provide a very good introduction to the issues raised by European contact with the third world in general, and Africa in particular, says Wayne Ackerson, professor of history at Salisbury State University in Salisbury, MD.
"These books display very clearly European attitudes towards colonization and African reactions and the impact to such intervention, respectively," says Ackerson.
"The Crying of Lot 49" by Thomas Pynchon. "This short novel is a classic paranoid fiction, and one which alerts students to the many forms of 'connectedness' which we observe in other areas, such as ecology and the Internet," says Steven E. Alford, professor of liberal arts at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.
Don't overlook plays, says Barry P. Wilson, lecturer in communication arts at Salisbury State University in Salisbury, MD.
Wilson says "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller is an excellent choice, because it combines the historical background of 17th-century New England with an exploration of intolerance and mass hysteria. A few girls elude Puritan punishment for their night-time revels by declaring themselves victims of the Devil, and follow that up by ecstatically accusing harmless people of witchcraft. The whole community is caught up in a frenzy, and the play is filled with dramatic scenes in which the characters struggle to defend themselves from charges of being in league with Satan.
"It's a great play to remind us of America in the 1950s, when anti-communist zeal threatened to sweep away our own democratic values," says Wilson.
"Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. The story is told in episodic fashion by a "stage manager" and centers around Dr. Gibbs' son George and newspaper editor Mr. Webb's daughter Emily, at the beginning of the 20th century. "We see the two going to high school together, falling in love, being married, suffering tragedy as Emily dies in childbirth, and united briefly at the graveside after Emily has discovered how painful a return to living can be. Life, marriage, and death, all in one play -- pretty good package," says Wilson.
"The Glass Menagerie," by Tennessee Williams. His "memory play" about the former Southern belle who tries to govern her two grown children by the constantly recalled standards of her girlhood, the son who tries to escape his monotonous job by writing poetry and going to the movies, the shy, slightly crippled daughter who finds refuge in the imaginary kingdom of her glass animal collection.
Plato's "Apology." The value of the dialogue is that Socrates, in his defense, calls to question the importance of life, the need to self-examine one's life, and the values that are important, says Dr. Richard Enos, professor of English at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
"I know it changed my life when I read it," says Enos.
TCU Professor of English Australia Tarver recommends "Siddartha," a coming-of-age novel about a young man whose life resembles, or is, the Buddha. "I also recommend all of Lillian Hellman's plays because she features women characters in unusual ways," says Tarver. Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes" is an example.
Joseph Ellis' "American Sphinx" and Robert Hughes' "Culture of Complaint" are two books that are worth reading before starting college, says John Norton, professor of political science at Lebanon Valley College.
"American Sphinx" will cause students who work at it to rethink the most pristine of our cultural icons, namely Thomas Jefferson, says Norton.
"This is good for them. Jefferson was a genius and an all-historian's choice for third or fourth most important president. That's what makes Ellis' book so interesting and challenging," says Norton.
In "Culture of Complaint," Hughes, the long-time art critic for TIME magazine, expresses his strong opinions on the so-called "culture wars" that have been responsible for the spilling of so much academic and popular media ink over the last decade, says Norton.
"Hughes maintains that these 'wars' have fragmented the American culture and it's time to think about what unites us rather than what divides us," says Norton. "For those high school students unaware of this major debate, here's a good place to start. Hughes has a strong viewpoint, but it skewers the right as well as the left."
Editors & Reporters:
Feel free to contact Carlson, LVC, 717-867-6244 (office); Dryden, LVC, 717-867-6247 (office); Hill, Roanoke, at 540-375-2423 (office); Comiskey, RWU, 401- 254-3140 (office); Camac, Roanoke, 540-375-2474 (office); Ackerson, SSU, 410-543-6527 (office); Alford, NSU, at 954-262-8204 (office); Wilson, Salisbury State University, 410-543- 6229 (home); Tarver, TCU, 817-921-6245; Enos, TCU, at 817-921-6244; or Norton, LVC, at 717-867-6326.
Please contact Steve Infanti of Dick Jones Communications at 814-867-1963 if you need any assistance.
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