Mandatory readings: an idea of country

In 2024 I wrote in this newspaper an article defending the recovery of mandatory readings in schools and high schools, making it clear that “eliminating mandatory readings is a way of preserving the logic of fleeting satisfaction”. I also underlined that reading “entails the responsibility of doing what we consider good because we have a vision of country and a shared heritage: Flaubert is French cultural heritage. What is ours?” 

Weeks later, Elena Losada published an article in this same newspaper and said: “I believe the question lies in deciding what we read, how we read, and why we read. And this leads us to the question of the canon. The canon is the literary tradition of a culture and a language, distilled by time and by the prescription of the auctoritas”.

What should be read? And for what purpose? What idea inspires the school reading proposal?

In 1932, on the occasion of the centenary of Goethe's death, the Generalitat published an anthology “dedicated to the schools of Catalonia”, with wood engravings by Josep Obiols and translations by Joan Maragall, Anna Maria de Saavedra, Carles Riba and Marià Manent, among others. The introduction states: “This anthology is not a comfortable book for teachers: it demands, clearly and plainly, more from them than from the very readers for whom it is essentially intended. It does not constitute, in other words, a reading that, if left to the child, will provide them with easy pleasure. […] the present anthology has been conceived and formed upon the pedagogical principle that it is necessary to offer the student models and texts always above the level at which they are really and currently found. This principle, we would dare to call this axiom, is perhaps too often forgotten, at least in terms of readings”. The purpose of this publication was not to create a textbook: it expressed an idea about the role of reading in the configuration of a cultured country.

Which books, under what pedagogical principle? This is the fundamental question. In the 1968-69 academic year, a selection of readings made by the Talitha and Costa i Llobera schools was published, bearing the title Which books should children read? It emphasized the importance of considering the literary quality of the texts made available to children at school.

A few weeks ago, the Department of Education of the Generalitat de Catalunya announced that high school readings will return to being common (a euphemism for not saying “compulsory”) throughout Catalonia starting from the 2027-2028 academic year. Very well. Which readings? Will there be a public debate? Meanwhile, teachers do not have significant discounts to buy books. And meanwhile, according to the latest data from 2024, 30% of schools and institutes do not have a library. Reading is a shared experience that responds to an idea of a country. Does anyone know how to explain what this idea is, and how to make the literary legacy dialogue with the pedagogical principle of “reading above the level” at which the student is found? This is the essential topic to address beyond reading plans.