My Literature Fear Realized!!!!

I was Facebook chatting with a friend of mine last night and she was telling me about her Composition class at Middle Tennessessee State University. She is going back to school to pursue a degree in social work, but her grades from MSU were too low in composition and she had to retake the course. She was complaining about the constant revision, so I explained the reason why the teacher had her revise. Then she went on to tell me the teacher has them read As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. It's a great book; I'm not all trying to bad mouth it. But giving it to freshmen students, in a Comp class, does this sound strange to anyone else?

She also told me that the instructor was writing his thesis on the book, so therefore, he subjected his class to reading and writing about it too. She also pointed out that any time anyone in class had different ideas about the book, he would immediately shut them down and offer up the "right" opinon.

I just thought I would offer up this story to show that my fears of a composition class turning into a literature class were real and legitimate. I also thought that book was far too hard for freshmen to take on in any kind of beginning class. Let me know what you think.