If a proposed new English curriculum gets approved, Moon Area High School students will get to choose among eight different semester-long courses for their senior year.

The idea has been popular enough among students to lead to an unexpected complaint.

"Some of our students want to take more than one at a time, or want to take them as well as AP English," department chair Joanne Canan told Moon Area school directors March 22.

The classes are contemporary fiction, poetry, survey of British literature, survey of world literature, Shakespearian and contemporary drama, playwriting and performance, contemporary non-fiction and creative non-fiction writing.

The new K-12 curriculum would replace one that has been in use for nine years, according to curriculum director Jeff Zollars. He said five years is considered optimal for replacing curricula, and that the plan is to use the new one for seven years to amortize its $865,000 cost.

Mr. Zollars said one of the draws in the new curriculum is its adherence to a "thematic" approach rather than approaching literature by genre.

"It takes a look at an essential question and explores how it's addressed in a number of genres," Mr. Zollars said. One example is the question, "Does knowledge come at a price?" with the novel "Fahrenheit 451" and other readings listed.

Mr. Zollars also said that with the state moving toward common standards for all schools, "it's a good time to be reviewing and revising curriculum."

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