A new analysis conducted by the National Council of Teachers of English found that six of the top 10 most commonly assigned books by English teachers at public middle and high schools today are the same as those assigned in 1989, demonstrating just how sticky the canon can be. There are lots of reasons for this — hey, if the district owns a couple hundred copies of The Great Gatsby, it can’t hurt to keep the party going — not to mention the levels of scrutiny and approval that ensues when trying to add something to a curriculum. The books that dropped off the top ten list include Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Julius Caesar, The Scarlet Letter and Lord of the Flies. The books that joined it include Frankenstein, Fahrenheit 451, Night and The Crucible.
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