Why We Do What We Do

I'd be the last person to discourage English teachers from reading fiction, poetry, and drama. It does concern me, however, that many (if not most) English teachers stop reading works of literary criticism and literary theory when they leave graduate school. What good does it do to know who Edward Said, Julia Kristeva, D.A. Miller, and others are? I was amazed at the number of English teachers who, during his recent skirmish with the Cambridge police, had not heard of Henry Louis Gates! I'll bet that many of them had taught Their Eyes Were Watching God; his work would be so helpful to them.
At the high school level, theory for theory's sake has very little use. It does serve the purpose, though, of giving students more questions to ask of texts--questions beyond the level of plot and even character analysis--questions that have to do with the reasons we are reading the text in the first place. Why read Pride and Prejudice, for instance? Read Edward Said's groundbreaking work on the never-mentioned-but-always-present context of wartime (Napoleonic) England in her work. The value of young men assumes a whole other dimension.