Respectfully, I think this is a vital part of any English education—the more you read, the better your writing becomes. Conversely, it's very difficult to become a proficient writer without becoming a proficient reader first, and for school-aged children, fiction is both the most accessible point of entry (although good nonfiction can capture kids' imaginations, too) and a great way to cultivate analytical skills.
Fiction sets unreasonable expectations. Why not use history? The bad guys sometimes win, but at least people learn something closer to reality.
How much time was wasted learning about symbolism? How much time did we waste learning how to be entertained?
Today I do none of this. Non-fiction is far more interesting than someone making stuff up. I'd much rather have good reading and writing skills than the ability to decode entertainment as an adult.
History, and I say this with a degree in the subject, does not do the same thing. History too is important, but it is not art, it's a social science. It's a complex field, assuming you mean the study of history and not just telling stories from the past, which half of the time is basically fiction. History is a way for us to understand our past and past and contemporary modes of thought, but it does not fulfill the same role as fiction.
Fiction does not require bad guys to loose. That is just contemporary American cultural expectation to make them always win.
>How much time was wasted learning about symbolism?
If you want to communicate with people, symbolism matters. It is part of the communication, just like analogies or figures of speach.
I enjoy reading fiction, mostly for escapism although the good ones also enrich me, but there is plenty of non-fiction that can feed those qualities. Non-fiction that focuses on the psychology, motives and feelings of people, and focuses on special, different , or creative individuals, might dk just that.
The autobiography "Lab Girl" comes to mind.
How does this sound appealing?
I wouldn't say "vital". There are plenty of examples everywhere since language is like air. Fiction may be great art, but that's not representative of what most people write. I agree there should be a better balance. When I was growing up we didn't even analyze famous speeches until high school which is far too late.
My favorite english class was either technical writing or freshman comp 1 because both were focused on nonfiction pieces, which was so rare elsewhere in my education.