Teaching American Literature Antithetically

American literature is one of the required courses for all students who will graduate from high school. U.S. students, who want to know and should know the history of their country, must study the literature of their country. Dr. H. Zylstra said in his Testament of Vision: If you really want to get at the spirit of an age and the soul of a time you can hardly do better than to consult the literature of that time and that age. In the novels and stories and poems and plays of a period you have a...