(November 22, 2002) -- Clark English teachers have added new books to their curriculum in order to give students a more contemporary selection.

Unlike previous years, the new books selected are written after the 1950s. With more contemporary choices, teachers said they hope that students may be able to better relate to the literary themes of these books.

In Mary Mardirosian’s advanced freshman English class, students have recently completed Zabelle, a novel by Nancy Krikorian. Mardirosian said, “Zabelle, a story of a woman’s experiences of the Armenian Genocide where her entire family is massacred, identifies more than just one culture. Through the main character’s struggles, students will hopefully be more aware of the magnificent triumph of the human spirit.”

In addition, prior to Zabelle, the main character in freshmen literature has always been a man. By choosing to teach Zabelle, Mardirosian hopes to give a voice to the female students in her class. Freshman Klaris Bandarian said, “The book was very interesting and deep. Since the story was about the struggles that my own culture had to face, I felt a personal relationship with the troubles that Zabelle went through.”

The sophomore humanities class is also reading new books. Sophomore English teacher Jennifer Davis said, “The new books this year, Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy and Hellie Lee’s Still Life With Rice, fit in the 10th grade English curriculum because both books do a good job of putting a human face on history.”

Davis also said that students don’t normally find history interesting because they can’t identify themselves with the past.

Kaffir Boy, in particular, solves this disinterest. Sophomore Tarek Kholaki said, “Kaffir Boy was interesting and informative about the problems that I would normally neglect. I was into reading the novel, but at the same time I learned something new.”

Another book that humanities students will be reading is Still Life With Rice. With a focus on Korean culture, this book is a story of a woman’s struggles and her interpretation of Korean womanhood. Students will be reading this book during the spring semester of this year.

While focusing on aspects of guilt, the AP junior English classes have been reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Junior English teacher Stephanie Sajjadieh chose this novel because it linked well with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a literary classic that students have been reading for years.

Unlike the modern books in the freshman, sophomore and junior classes, the senior AP English class’s new selections include Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, two literary classics. Senior English teacher Melanie Martin said that “The books this year focus more on philosophical aspects of human nature than those of previous years. Siddhartha, for example, has a poetic philosophical structure.”

The process to add new books is not simple. The difficulty in adding a book to a curriculum has increased over the years.

When a book is proposed by a teacher or anyone else, other high schools in the district must first approve of it before it can be read by students. Sajjadieh said, “It took four years to get The Things They Carried approved for reading due to its explicit content.”

After teaching these books, teachers said they hope that students will feel a more personal relationship with the ideas that these books convey.