Most people, when they are young, are introduced to stories and nursery rhymes as an initiation to the world of communication and learning. Preschool and primary school teachers use fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and children's stories in order to engage their students so that the students will enjoy school and want to learn more. This is the beghnning of learning to read and write. Somewhere along the line, however, due to social pressure, state and federal testing guidelines and other demands, teachers drop what will engage the students and instead teach them what they "ought" to know. In English Literature courses this usually means thick, dry tomes such as Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, depressing regional writing such as Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, or well-meaning, horizon-expanding, and very depressing, multicultural tales such as The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. All of which are very serious pieces of literature used in classes as platforms to not only teach students how analyze and communicate, but also to expand their point of view by exploring different lifestyles, philosophies, and cultures. None of it is fun.
Reading is supposed to be fun. Reading and writing are actions that people do everyday to survive. It is a basic part of functioning in the 21st century. It should be enjoyable. One of the ways to make it more enjoyable would be to introduce more contemporary or fun literature to the core curriculum of English Literature courses in high school and college. There is no reason why students would not learn the same lessons using, for example, Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling, Nick Hornby, or in this case, A.A. Milne, instead of the more "serious" authors listed above. This paper posits that the work of Alan Alexander (A.A) Milne should be taught as core curriculum in the English Literature classes in high school and college for these reasons: 1) it teaches good, creative use of the English Language...