It was a similar decision on the part of Baker that made me not want to teach their Composition I class anymore. One of the great joys in my life has been from exposing people to the joys of the English language and its literature. Teaching literature is more than just getting students to read (or listen to) fantastic plots and characters; it is getting them to experience the joys and possibilities within our language itself. English is a difficult and confusing language to the uninitiated, but those who plunge into its depths find a world full of diversity and riches.
For too many people, formal education is their only contact with literature and thus the wealth of their own language. Forcing their reading and writings to only be grounded in nonfiction squelches the imagination and beauty of both. All of their other classes expose them to nonfiction; why deprive them of the little that they get?
True, there are plenty of teachers who ruin literature through worksheets, quizzes, forced oral presentations, and awkward readings. This doesn't mean that we should stop teaching literature (especially since those same teachers will now tear apart nonfiction, making English classes a true horror to attend), but that we need to take even greater strides to show our students what great literature can do for them. We need to bring more beauty into people's lives, not coat them in mundanity.