Imigration in America

[--Pete]

Hi,

If I wanted to read 450 major novels, I'd have to set aside at least a whole year, just for that, and even then I doubt I'd get it done. That's a colossal amount of reading. Did they really get everyone to do this?

You realize, of course, that those numbers are for a four year period. A book a week for the school year (36 weeks) comes out to 144, which may be closer to the actual number. And this does include anthologies of both poetry and short stories. And for each Anna Karenina there were at least two Lord of the Flies. In paperback form, it probably averages about 250 pages per book. At 50 pages an hour (slow enough to read and take the occasional notes) that's five hours a week plus, maybe two, for the report.

Tripling that number for the prep curriculum didn't really triple the workload. For one thing, 30 to 40 of the additional books were on the Summer reading list. We also did not write more reports, since many of the works were only discussed in class. And, of course, the people in the prep curriculum were expected to do more, including reading faster and understanding better.

Did they get everybody to do that? It was a private school, about 600 students, and had a long waiting list. They didn't get everybody to do it, just everybody that got to stay.

EDIT: And the original mention of 'major novels' was wrong -- that should have been '150 books including major novels'. Sometimes my mind moves faster than my body. Sorry about that.

--Pete