Romeo and Juliet

Why it’s on the list: Two teenagers from feuding Verona families meet, marry in secret within a day, and are dead within four. Usually taught as a love story, it is closer to a study of speed — almost every disaster follows from somebody acting before the letter arrives.

Where I heard about it

• Founders Classical Academy — on the seventh-grade list at the Lewisville, Texas school, two years after A Midsummer Night’s Dream, posted by the Classic Learning Test in September 2026 as an example of what a classical curriculum assigns. Full sequence: Founders Classical Academy Reading List.

Connections

• Founders Classical Academy Reading List — the curriculum this came from; 56 unique titles across 5th through 12th grade.
• Classical Education — the movement whose canon this list is.
• William Shakespeare
• Cyrano de Bergerac
• Literature