I like the idea. I think that especially at around 16, you really want more of a voice in your world and that it gives you an opportunity to actively choose to be part of your environment. Hopefully, it would also keep you engaged in that same fashion, having gotten your buy in, you will actually participate in the classes and encourage active participation by your peers. It's so easy at 16 to just "check out" and sit on the sidelines dissing everything.
As for books that are hard, I remember Dante's Inferno and an intense almost line by line reading of it and discussion by the class at 17. I thought Catcher in the Rye, when I was 13, was a really great book but it's also a fairly mature subject. Then again, I was reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. I read Flowers in the Attic that same year and probably shouldn't have. I can't remember when I read Crime and Punishment as I did it over a summer and they sort of blur together.
Dunno, I think any topic is a fair one if the audience is interested and over 13 as long as you have a mature and responsible adult able to handle the tough questions kindly and honestly.
no subject
As for books that are hard, I remember Dante's Inferno and an intense almost line by line reading of it and discussion by the class at 17. I thought Catcher in the Rye, when I was 13, was a really great book but it's also a fairly mature subject. Then again, I was reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. I read Flowers in the Attic that same year and probably shouldn't have. I can't remember when I read Crime and Punishment as I did it over a summer and they sort of blur together.
Dunno, I think any topic is a fair one if the audience is interested and over 13 as long as you have a mature and responsible adult able to handle the tough questions kindly and honestly.