I had the odd experience of attending an old-line Catholic school from kindergarten to 8th grade (age 5 to 14) that still followed a "classical" curriculum. It was probably the last of the very rigid, intense sort of schools from the turn of the 20th century. If you have ever seen movies or read books about the sort of Catholic schools with stern nuns, knuckles cracked by rulers, rigid discipline and regimentation, then you have an idea of the school in which I spent my youth. We didn't have books like To Kill A Mockingbird; we had The Illiad and The Odyssey, Shakespeare, Thomas Aquinas, and other such literature, literature they probably don't teach anymore in grade schools. I did read Mockingbird and other non-prescribed writings on my own. In fact, I got most of my reading ideas from a list posted in the church weekly by a group called the "Legion Of Decency" who published lists of books, movies and TV programs rating them according to how they felt the material would affect and/or influence the Catholic public and, particularly, the youth. IIRC, there were three levels: Unobjectionable, Objectionable, and Condemned. When the list was posted each week, all us boys would eagerly look at the ratings and, for most of us, make efforts to find those items on the Condemned list. So, I do have to thank the "Legion Of Decency" for exposing me to Harper Lee, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Miller, and all the other great writers I have enjoyed through the years...
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