Tolkien in school?

[Elanor]

As a teacher (mainly foreign languages, but I have also taught English Literature classes) I don't really see a place for Tolkien in the Secondary curriculum. I can see that in primary schools, reading The Hobbit may be a good idea (though of course for a mixed-ability class it could be quite hard work for some of them.) However, once you get into the secondary schools (age 11 onwards), it would be very hard to work such a long book as LotR into the curriculum. I don't know what the situation is elsewhere, but in the UK, teachers can't just teach whatever book they choose. They are obliged to choose from a list, and teachers within the same school will have to do the same books as each other. I can see that LotR isn't to everyone's taste, and it would be impossible to study the entire book in a school year. I also agree with the people who mentioned the dislike of books that they have been forced to study - I wouldn't want anyone to be put off Tolkien because of studying it in school. As a teacher I have recommended Tolkien to several students. Some of them have taken my advice, tried it, and loved it (and then asked me many many questions about the books). But I would not recommend his work to all my students, they need to have enough intelligence and imagination.