Tolkien taught in school

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

We read the hobbit in 7th grade reading class. I'll never get the sound of the teacher shrieking out the words "Thief! Thief Baggins, we hates it forever!" and scaring us out of our wits. Another point I have is that, were LotR required reading, it would lessen individual imaginings because the entire class would no doubt end up discussing their thoughts, visuals, and opinions, and lessening the artistic license that the imagination takes, when left to its own devices. When we discuss things, we don't have the annoyance of peer-pressure, or the teacher saying "this is what happened". We've already read the books and formed our own conclusions and images, and even if they change, they are still ours, and not simply visuals created as a class and generally accepted as the easy way of getting out of imagining your own... I'll just stop now. I think I'm leaping headfirst into run-on sentences. I'm sorry if none of this made any sense.

Fea