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hand the average adult some of the classics, and watch what happens.
Unfortunately, some schools are beginning to collect selected passages from classics and place them into anthologies... often designed around a theme providing social and/or political influence.

After reading possibly 5 - 20 pages of a classic, which has been removed from the context of the entire work, and transplanted into the context of the themed anthology, students may feel they have read and are familiar with the work. Rather than piquing a student's curiosity to read the works in their entirety, the net effect may often be inoculating or vaccinating the student against the classics.