When I was teaching third grade a bunch of years ago, I had a student in my class who loved Captain Underpants books. He would have been a much happier and more well-behaved child if we’d just left him alone to read whatever. If your outlook on school is--and I’m not saying it is--that schools should relax their standards and let kids direct the why and how of their learning (or if you think a school diploma is a commodity, an asset one deserves to receive by dint of putting up with annoying teachers and their pointless assignments), then I’d agree with you. Why foist Bradbury on a kid not willing, or perhaps not smart enough, to handle it in the first place. But others, like me, see school and scholarship in general as a noble and necessary, but at time uncomfortable, endeavor of personal intellectual and character growth. Kids will complain, much the same as when we make them eat their vegetables, but it’s our job as teachers and parents to help them learn and grow. Thoughts?