Epics Still Have to Be Taught in the Classroom

Young Adult literature is becoming more and more tangible and exciting for students.  With books like the Hunger Games trilogy, Harry Potter saga, books by Jodi Picoult such as My Sister’s Keeper, and other thrilling stories, it’s no wonder that students are enthralled and captured by these texts.  These grab students’ attention, with no surprise by teachers and parents.  Many responses from adults around students reading these books are something along the lines of, “Well, at least my kid (or student) is reading.  If these books weren’t around he/she wouldn’t even read.”  This is where I want to put my disclaimer in; I am not arguing that these texts should not be taught or read by students.  These books should be in a classroom or school library.  I am an advocate for students to read diverse texts and be enriched by various authors, styles, time periods, literary movements, and genres.  My argument coincides with this philosophy of teaching.  Epics must still be taught in the classroom to our modern students because they provide students opportunities to develop linguistic skills and vocabulary, building of background knowledge, and developing critical thinking skills.

One reason to read these epics is the elevated level of linguistics.  Recall The Epic of Gilgamesh or even the Odyssey.  These texts greet students with unfamiliar vocabulary and syntax.  By reading, analyzing, and evaluating the spectrum of the texts discussed in my blog, students are exposed to diverse punctuation trends, grammatical structures, point of views, voices, and styles force students to examine the history of language.  Dealing with different contexts of language allows students to analyze the social and historical context of language versus the time the epic was written and now.  This is important to our modern students because language is our current context.  Without language, our world and our lives cease to exist.  Without an understanding of language, students do not have an appreciation of the epic’s value. 

When it comes to vocabulary, there have been numerous studies done on the positive effects of a wide vocabulary.  Research shows a direct correlation between vocabulary and reading comprehension.  What that means is that if a student has a large vocabulary, he or she (more often than not) is very successful at reading comprehension.  A paper written by Shane Templeton and John J. Pikulski titled, "The Foundations of Literacy:  The Importance of Vocabulary and Spelling Development," cites research as well as actually teaching vocabulary.  It can be found at the following link:  The Foundations of Literacy.  In this paper, the authors note that, “Research that has investigated the learning and teaching of vocabulary and spelling suggests that we should think about vocabulary development as a process of elaborating and expanding these underlying concepts and the words that represent them.”  With reading epics, vocabulary development and linguistic analysis allows modern students to become better readers as well as aware of the social and historical contexts of language. 

Along with the building of linguistic skills and vocabulary, these epics allow for a building of background knowledge and connection to lives.  As I’ve said in previous blog posts, building background knowledge and making a connection is the number one reading strategy.  Research done over this is monumental.  ASCD’s website allows Internet users free access to the book by Robert Marzano (you really need to read him if you are interested in anything with education), titled Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement.  You can find it at the following link:  The Importance of Background Knowledge.  In it, Marzano offers research and commentary over the correlation between building background knowledge and academic achievement.  He writes, “Enhancing students' academic background knowledge, then, is a worthy goal of public education from a number of perspectives. In fact, given the relationship between academic background knowledge and academic achievement, one can make the case that it should be at the top of any list of interventions intended to enhance student achievement.”  By reading epic poetry, teachers are doing the students a service by providing them with integral background knowledge needed for academic achievement.    

Epic poetry is one of the most influential forms of literature in the entire world.  Few authors (besides Shakespeare—although he was influenced by many epics) can compare to the authors of epic literature.  There is Homer, Milton, Chaucer, Dante, and Virgil.  Their busts should be on the literary Mount Rushmore.  Their stories are the roots on the tree of literature.  These texts are the foundation to which our contemporary stories have grown from.  What would Harry Potter be without the influence of Homer?  As Marzano has said, background knowledge is crucial in academic achievement.  It would be a shame if students were not exposed to texts that can give them an academic advantage by building crucial background knowledge.

Finally, these epics can give students critical thinking skills needed.  For the past nine weeks, I have been preaching the relevance of these epics on modern students.  These stories contain themes of revenge, love, rebellion, and so on, as well as issues of gender, class, and equality.  Students can debate the moral issues found in the Odyssey or discuss the struggle between good and evil in Paradise Lost.  These texts can be used to look at their world and social contexts in a new light.  Students can do activities comparing political leaders and the epic heroes like Gilgamesh.  Is Gilgamesh a good leader in Mesopotamian society?  What about in our current, global society?  Does Dante struggle through the same political issues that someone like Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sherif, has gone through?  Looking at these texts through global contexts and making connections develops our students’ critical thinking skills.  By reading these epics, students critically think about contextual issues like gender politics or themes such as rebellion.  Critical thinking skills are honed and developed further by taking analyses of the texts and transferring them to students’ own historical and social conditions.  Examining diverse societies, through the eyes of a foreign author, nurtures understanding, acceptance, and compassion, capacities needed for competing in a global society today.  Analyzing the contexts of these texts creates an appreciation for how worldviews have changed.  This promotes a deeper understanding of why we are who we are today.

Katniss must not be overthrown for Achilles in our classrooms today.  Odysseus must share the bookshelf alongside Percy Jackson.  For our students to be competitive in our global society there must be a mingling of contemporary and classical literature.  What I am advocating for is an appreciation of classical literature and a spot for them in current curricula.  They can provide our students new avenues of understanding our world by showing them worlds of old.  Epics must be found in classrooms around the nation and even the world.  Without them, we are robbing students of chances for academic success. 

That's my argument, in a nutshell.  If you can call a nutshell a four-page paper with about 1,100 words long.  I'll finish with a final reflection post, but again, I want to thank you for your time and reading!

Cassy