My sons’ high school (also Jesuit) assigned many great books for English in the late ‘70s, but I was alarmed when they assigned The Thorn Birds to the seniors. I went in to talk to the teacher (a lay teacher and the only woman my son had throughout his 4 years.)
Her explanation was that this was likely the last novel that our sons would read for the rest of their lives because they would become doctors, engineers, research scientists, etc. and most of their reading would be technical. She wanted them to want to turn to novels for pleasure reading. She also wanted them to know how to treat a woman (apparently the class discussions revolved around Meggie’s abusive and cold husband.)
I don’t know that I bought all that malarkey, but I could see that I wasn’t going to change it. My son grew up to be an engineer who has a knack for writing and who enjoys reading novels. Who’d a thunk?
Great novels
Theophilus about St. Luke
Father Elijah about end times by Michael O’Brien