How much should teens be required to read for homework in an English class?

I'm not sure about how much, as the amount I read voluntarily skewed way above average all the way from pre-school through high school, but I will say there should be a lot more [i]variety[/i] in what they are required to read. Year after year, my required reading list was nothing but heavy dramas about enduring hardships. Usually on the theme of losing the innocence of childhood, being black in the South during Jim Crow, or both. Had I not been positively exposed to books from a young age by my mother, I quite possibly might have ended up thinking there was nothing more to them than dreary doom and gloom. The obsession with "serious" literature is a plague.

When I was in high school English, there was always a book assigned to the said class and we had to read a certain number if pages in a week's time. It was usually a boring book that I'd never heard of and I ploughed through it, even though I love to read. When my nephew went to the specialized classes for junior high students, they were reading "To Kill A Mockingbird" at 11 and 12 - 6th and 7th grades. I first read this the summer I was 15 and I had a copy at home, so I loaned him mine so he wouldn't have to buy one.

Reading is a good activity for kids who have nothing special to do. I learned from my older sister at eighteen months (no lie) and I have never stopped since.Books are good for more than just reading assignments in your local English class.

I used to love library week in english class...you just need a good book you like

Question : why does the requirement destroy their desires to learn?