Sex in the classroom

How does a Sub get a bunch of disinterested, struggling, high school Sophmores interested in reading????

Everything in modern teaching leans toward ownership. If you want kids to invest into delving into literature, you allow them to choose the novel. So, when I suggested Animal Farm, and the remedial class groaned in misery. I retorted with "what would YOU like to read?"

One girl responded quickly with "The Notebook". Really? Like the movie with James Garner? My memory was of a movie that focused on an elderly man with an incredible passion for the love he lost to a wife with Alzheimer Disease. Could 16 year old kids want this book? Is it the same?

The student assures me, yes... the book from that movie. Her sister is reading it and thinks it is awesome. Now, the surprise. Two of the guys in the class add their enthusiastic assent. Another girl joins the wave.

I ask the teachers whether we have the book.... yes, but only four. Order more, they suggest. To my surprise it is relatively easy. Five days later the district owns a "class set" of The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. I decide to create a "Study guide" to help the students keep track of details as they read.

LORD HAVE MERCY!!!! There is SEX in this love story!!! I read, and the subject of premarital sex recurs... and then there's a four page scene of a lustful reunion. I have not read the fineprint of the district's policy... but I'm concerned I might be crossing some lines. But it is a class with 8 students, the district already had the book on it's shelves, and they are excited to read. Okay, excited may be a foreshadowing term... but they have no idea what they are in for. Not wanting to be a spoiler, I introduced the book today and warned them there would be sex. But it is a tale of a true love, an epic romance, a deep passion. I told them that this is what they should hope for, an experience as meaningful as this.

Wish me luck. We crept through the first chapter today. The challenge is still ahead of me.