Preschool children experience literature early on through nursery rhymes, being read to, and tales told by parents and grandparents. This introduction to the literature of a child's culture, family, and times should be a most comfortable experience. On reaching school, however, the child will find that the demands of pedagogy become insistent over many curricular areas, including literature. For many students, literature of the most traditional and elevated types becomes an experience laden with drudgery, with the requirements of pursuit, analysis, and recall on demand. To add to the paradox, fine literature is tightly bound to the scheduled homework of school, the completion of tasks, and the regurgitation of lines, themes, characterizations, and plot arrangements. To these are added the internal concepts of the author's philosophy, motivations of characters, and perceptions of literary style and facility. All of this is subject to being graded, assessed, evaluated, and marked. This paradox between love of literature and the requirements of schooling has persisted and will continue. What needs to be dealt with is a recognition of the near-term and eventual effects of this process. An important concern is the need for improved preparation of the teacher of literature. Another aspect of the problem is the way literature is abridged, cut, censored, or rewritten in the Disney mode before it is presented to students. Finally, educators and parents must pay attention to students' interests and offer books that are in keeping with these interests. (HTH)