Juniors at Burke High school are currently reading ‘The Crucible’ in their English classes. This popular play by Arthur Miller examines fear, power, and the consequences of false accusations. This text challenges students by pushing them to analyze how hysteria can spread in a community.

While the story has an older style of dialogue, that’s not the biggest challenge that English teacher David Rochford sees. He feels that one of the biggest obstacles that students face is understanding why John Procter chose death instead of just confessing. It forces them to think of ideas like integrity and reputation.

“It takes time for them to grasp why someone would value their moral indentity more than their physical safety,” Mr. Rochford said.

When it comes to students reading the book, there’s usually two types. One may love to read and constantly volunteer while the other may hate to read and never volunteer. There are, however, some students who volunteer to read because they just want a good grade.

They usually can push aside how they feel about reading if it involves their grade. One student reads all the time simply because he just wants to keep his grade in English class.

“I usually volunteer to read just because I know it’ll help benefit my grade in the end. I don’t typically like reading, but I’m able to let that go for the sake of my grade,” Sean Holland said.

Despite its challenging language, The Crucible remains an important text for juniors to read because of its lasting themes. It encourages students to think about the dangers of following the crowd and how it can affect them in the real world.

“I’m not really a reader, so it’s been hard to keep up,” Asher Obrien said, “but I do understand why we’re reading it, especially with how it connects to stuff that happens today.”