Canadian Reading Required
For a long time, high schools in Ontario (Canada) had the equivalent of grade thirteen - also known to those who took it as OAC. Basically, a lot of the courses that we took when we were in OAC were around the same level as first year university or college courses outside of Canada. One of the things I really liked about OAC was that our English class that year focused solely on (apart from Shakespeare) Canadian authors.
Looking back, it was a great way to introduce us to Canadian writers and poets. Other than L.M. Montgomery and various children’s authors, I had never read any before that point. We studied Robertson Davies and Mordecai Richler among others - that’s when I discovered one of my all-time favourite novels (Davies’ Fifth Business) and one of my most loathed books (Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz).
So the fact that high schools in British Columbia are now requiring English classes to study at least one book by a Canadian author every year thrills me. I think it’s a great first step in introducing Canadian teens to the variety of great Canadian literature out there, and I really hope that B.C. is soon joined by the other provinces and territories in requiring this in all the high schools.
I would definitely be interested to see what Canadian books that teachers will be asking their students to read.