I think not.

In between finishing my masters and starting my job I had roughly three months to do nothing but watch daytime television and eat a bag of tortellini a day (rough break up okay).

As lazy as I am, I needed to find a temporary job to fill my time. I found a scoring job where I graded standardized tests for different states. I graded science tests from Kentucky, and English composition tests from across the Northeast. This is where I gained my Harry Potter knowledge as I refuse to read the books but these kids loved to write about Harry Potter.

There was also this book series called The Hunger Games, which I had never heard of (spring 2010) and some perplexing information coming out of these essays. So these kids fight one another to kill each other because the man says they have to? That was the gist of the papers. I gathered that we were in the future, and for entertainment purposes you must follow the orders of those in power and fight one another?

I graded over 1,000 papers. Most of them were confusing the point of Of Mice and Men, or using Harry Potter try an answer a question that had nothing to do with Harry Potter. A good chunk used the Hunger Games to answer the test questions. In the hundreds of papers I read on The Hunger Games, not one student even hinted at the theme of big government, social control, politics, big brother, class, any of those things that are broadcast as super important and what makes the book worthwhile in the academic setting.

After grading the papers, I had the same discomfort in my stomach that I did in ninth grade when I was forced to read Lord of the Flies. The idea of children killing other children, whether it is to signify class structure or societal evils, just doesn't sit well with me.

The schools that are taking students on a field trip to see The Hunger Games in the theatres...I think not. That does not sit well with me. Until we work on decreasing harassment and harsh bullying in schools, I think the viewing of a story with the premise of fighting to the death is best kept outside of academia.

I know there are plenty of students out there who can grasp the themes expressed in the book, and understand that it is just a movie...but there are so many more who just don't get the point and even their parents aren't able to explain to them what the book is supposed to represent.

I am a Hunger Games hater. Big time.