I'm an English/Language Arts Education major and have found that everyone has an opinion about it.

It always makes me slightly uncomfortable when I get the "Oh, I hated English classes. I would never read" response. What do you say to something like that? "Congratulations"? "I don't really read either unless the book seems really interesting, I can probably just fake it a little better than you can"?

But the response that really grinds my gears is the: "Oh my gah, PLEASE do not make your students read Beowulf/Wuthering Heights/anything by Thoreau/etc."
Excuse me? Come again? Do I know you?
We all have bad experiences with books in high school, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was the absolute bane of my existence for two very long weeks in the twelfth grade but that certainly does not discount the educational merit of the book. Despite my anguish that bloomed with each page, Ms. Melancon used that painful packet of pages to execute useful lessons on determining whether the narrator is trustworthy and analyzing an author's syntactical choices.
It really puts me in a bind when people throw out books that I enjoy. Paradise Lost? Most people who aren't that into literature can't stand it but satirical epic poems are my jam. I can't wait to pull that one out in a classroom.
Plus, why on Earth would I make such a promise? I don't know what will be on AP tests or standard curriculum by the time I get around to being a teacher.

I realize that I'm being obnoxiously, angsty, English major-y in this post but it becomes quite tiresome to listen to all of these different books that I "absolutely shouldn't teach". And I am sure these people are just looking for someone with a similar disdain for a particular book, but I have had quite enough of that nonsense.

 I may start responding with a simple "You can't tell me what to do! You're not my mom!"