This is an ELA topic, but I'd appreciate input from other fields (I teach music).
Growing up, I always loved to read; I still do, and enjoy many types of fiction and nonfiction.
However, with few exceptions, I hated the books they made us read for school. They were mostly dull, depressing, and by old white men.
If even I couldn't enjoy those books, I feared they would surely discourage other students from reading--such a terrible loss!
Do you think this is (still) a problem? Or am I just weird?

Because of common core most literature is not taught now but instead the emphasis is our nonfiction writing so that any true literature is mostly just a small excerpt of a larger piece. I loved literature growing up and still do and I think teaching students to love reading any type of book is one of the key goals of an English teacher but unfortunately you can’t put that in a test So it’s not important anymore.

I’m an ELA teacher, and you’re absolutely right. Challenging students is important, but so helping and encouraging them to develop a lifelong love of reading.

I’m a geek at heart. I love the escape of reading fun books, graphic novels, playing video games, and I go weak at the knees for analyzing a good book. But I can’t teach the really good ones because it isn’t approved (I’m talking high school level). The positive side of this is that we’re getting better with activities around required personal reading. That’s where I can boost interest in fun books and interest based subjects.

Not sure about other districts, states, or grades, but the novels/texts we read are not our choice. We teach the texts that are part of our prescribed curriculum with a slight allowance for students to do independent reading of their choice. Not gonna lie, I & the students enjoy most of what we read for class, but they aren't my first choices. If you want to argue why that's not the best way to teach reading, I would direct you to the Louisiana Dept of Ed to file your complaint. They're tired of hearing from me.

Agreed, it wasn't until college that I really found books I enjoyed and connected with. We were made to read the standard Shakespeare and the like as AP students. But most us were also bilingual and went on to earn college degrees. It would have been nice to read a book about a Latina raised by immigrant parents.

A lot of districts and schools allow us to teach novels outside of the cannon. My own district provides a variety of optional texts for each unit, so if I have the texts available I give my students background info on each and let them choose which one they'd like to read.

I find that books that are more cultural deal with topics that need sensitive guidance which is why I feel like at a younger age, we steer our students away from them. In school we focus on reading for skill building, not enjoyment, which is unfortunate. I do seek out cultural and usually historical narratives I can study with my middle schoolers. Diversity is definitely ever more important, but I will not stop teaching the classics either.

English teachers have, for the most part, moved to student choice for reading. We encourage students to read what they want to read and most of us have classroom libraries with hundreds of high interest books. Some ELA teachers are still resisting the shift from the canon with whole class novels to student choice with reading workshops, but as with all changes, you will always have some that refuse.

I love the classics and I love a good murder mystery. I think it’s important to let students know that there are many books, by all different kinds of people, that they may enjoy—or not. I also think there are cultural references that students are expected to understand—like the previous poster mentioned. I put four books a month on a recommended reading list on the board and the books are varied for interest, gender, ethnicity etc. I’m at a junior high and at this age it’s all about exposure to lots of different things.

IT IS A MAJOR PROBLEM!!! I thought that the CCSS was supposed to allow students a deeper insight into the basics. But...not one mention this year about what is going on around us and I teach ELA high school. I'm teaching Kate Chopin, Hemmingway, Longfellow, and now Julius Ceasar...then finish off the year with Gatsby. This is American Lit and the early start to America has been eliminated. Oh, let us not forget, but we had the midterm assessment, then the first sem. final assessment. And, we are just finishing the 3rd quarter assessment and just in time for the CAASP. I thought we are no longer teaching to the test?????

I think that books that are relevant to students are really important.
That being said, in college (and often in life) there is a certain amount that presumes exposure to certain things that are considered common cultural knowledge. It might not be fair, but it's there.
For example, some sort of reference to Moses like parting the sea or leading someone out of Egypt. Nobody needs to actually be religious to get the reference but if you've actually never come across it before you run into the allusion.
And a certain amount of familiarity with the traditional canon is helpful.

No worries. Hardly any students read books now.

There is a difference between teaching reading skills and teaching literature. Literature should address complex language, universal themes, multidimensional characters, impressive imagery. If literature doesn’t challenge students academics and mentally, then the literature is too simplistic. I love a good beach read, but I also love the beauty of the art of classical writers who follow rules.