Oprah's Mean

Alright, so Oprah and I are in a fight. (She's not really aware of this, but still, it's fierce on my end). See, here's what happened: She's reading Night with her book club this month, which is one of the many many reasons I mentioned the book to you guys. And, she's having this essay contest for teens, and the winner gets to go meet her and get some sort of scholarship. So, I hear about this, and I go "AWESOME" and I get all hyped because I'm thinking I'll just have you guys enter the contest (those of you who wanted to) and then you'd probably win (because you're great writers) and then you'd get to meet Oprah (and probably I would too) and then you'd win a scholarship. And it'd be great...right? NO! And my fantastic plan gets ruined all because the stupid contest is limited to high school students. Whatever.

So, anyway, here's what I'd like for us to do. I've adapted the question that she asked in her essay contest, so that we can sort of do it here. All you have to do is answer it, and it can be as long or short as you'd like, as long as it's thoughtful. You know the deal; you can say whatever you'd like, as long as you support it with reasons. And then, later, I'll declare a winner. Whoever writes the most eloquent, well thought out, convincing answer, will get a gold star (seriously I bought some and I need to use them).

Here's your question:

Is it important today that we study things like The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night? Why or why not? What relevance do these works have for students today?

(Take that Oprah.)