Mockingbird Axed

[jazzy_dave]

So Michael Gove , our Education Minister , wants to relegate or remove American classics such as To Kill A Mockingbird from the English curriculum in our schools. Another philistine move from this weedy government that i find abhorrent. -

From a Guardian headline on my tablet

"To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men axed as Gove orders more Brit lit.  New English literature GCSE ditches American classics for pre-20th century British authors such as Dickens and Austen".

The article continues - "Last year, Gove, who has said children should be reading 50 books a year from the age of 11, told a conference of independent school heads that he would much prefer to see a child reading George Eliot's Middlemarch than one of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight vampire novels.

The actor and writer Emma Kennedy tweeted: "But why would Gove want children to learn about tolerance and doing what is right rather than what is popular?"
The Department for Education said: "In the past, English literature GCSEs were not rigorous enough and their content was often far too narrow. We published the new subject content for English literature in December. It doesn't ban any authors, books or genres. It does ensure pupils will learn about a wide range of literature, including at least one Shakespeare play, a 19th-century novel written anywhere and post-1914 fiction or drama written in the British Isles.

"That is only the minimum pupils will be expected to learn. It is now up to exam boards to design new GCSEs, which must then be accredited by the independent exams regulator Ofqual."

The direction on the syllabus content published by the department last year, and which exam boards must follow, specified: "Students should study a range of high-quality, intellectually challenging, and substantial whole texts in detail. These must include: at least one play by Shakespeare; at least one 19th-century novel; a selection of poetry since 1789, including representative Romantic poetry; and fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards. All works should have been originally written in English."

The exam boards – and indeed individual schools – are free to add any extra books they see fit, but the new rules have left them very little room for any 20th-century writing from outside Britain.

Although pre-20th century literature will now dominate, Anita and Me, Meera Syal's 1996 story of a British Punjabi girl in the Midlands, and DNA, Dennis Kelly's 2007 play about bullying, are understood to have made it on to the list."

When will this government leave schools to set their own lists from a recommended reading list and not interfere. 

Comments

[quirkytizzy.livejournal.com]

It greatly upsets me to see any government restrict the kind of reading its citizens "should" do.

That said, I am a firm believer of including contemporary and modern works in children's reading development, too. If I can't write like Nietzsche and get an A (I would get an F because HOLY RUN ON SENTENCE BATMAN), then show me an appropriate writer who built his ideas off Nietzsche that I can emulate.

Neither author is BAD, per say, but a student's reading education should be COMPREHENSIVE and teach them not only for what the world WAS, but prepare them for the world NOW.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Srsly? OMG...Because the world needs MORE Dickens and Austen. Look, Dickens had a few good books, but I found Austen intolerable. You want them bored and to give up reading as a bad joke, force the new curriculum. I'm no big fan of SM myself. I find her work trashy and without taste or imagination. But I'd rather teens read her first, THEN go on to find better - than not read at all. THEY ARE READING. Let's leave it at that.

You want to add more British authors? COOL. GO FOR IT. But this kinda smacks as insulting. 'YOU CAN NO READ UNLESS YOU STAY IN-COUNTRY.' Just...ugh...really. Shows what this current government thinks of the rest of the world - and their own citizens. Meh.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Well, we normally don't know the names of MPs over here, but I've thought he was an idiot since his January comments about World War I.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

It doesn't ban any authors, books or genres.
But they are going to remove American authors, huh?
I have a real problem when people start talking about removing/banning books. :o
Demanding kids read 50 books a year, and maybe reading two themselves, right? UGH.....
Hugs, Jon

[kaishin108.livejournal.com]

Just burn the Classics, who needs them, righttt that is the answer... shaking head.

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I remember being bored to tears with 90% of the books I had to read in high school.

I was reading a book a week outside of what we were forced to read in school. The books I read for fun were great compared to "The Classics" that were being forced on us.

I wish they'd had HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL, by Robert Heinlein on the list of books to read for school- or something by Asimov, Bradbury, or Arthur C. Clarke.....

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

Very narrow minded.

I do believe there is more to life than Dickens and Austen (and that Mockingbird is a wonderful book more relevant and likely to appeal to youngsters), but I equally think it's a shame when people slag off Dickens and Austen. I am sure I don't enjoy some of the authors other people don't like, but one man's meat is another man's poison.

[kabuldur.livejournal.com]

What??? Talk about parochial. What about broadening our horizons and celebrating other cultures? To Kill a Mockingbird might be my all time favourite book. Even if set in the states, it is about racism and justice all that - in a good way!

Mind you, I do think that British literature should have an emphasis on it, but not to the exclusion of all else.

And yes, some contemporary works should be included.

Just looking at the comments below, I really think The Hobbit should be included!

And reading 50 books a year? That would turn off most teenagers immediately. In uni I was reading one book a week outside the curriculum, but most people are not like that, nor would I want them to be. We are all different - diversity is good!

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

It's not quite that simple, actually, and no books have been banned, that just makes good headlines. The changes won't help and the system is terrible at the moment, because bright kids do separate courses called English Language and English Literature and the dim ones do something called English which is a mash up of the two. It's the ones studying English that all do Mice and Men because it is short and easy.

It's a complete waste of time to inflict literature of any kind on kids who are functionally illiterate (255 of them fail to get a C even in the easy course). They should study a practical, skills based English lang course that actually endows them with the skills they need, but self-righteous liberal cunts and sanctimonious tory cunts both (all of whose children are fully literate, I'm sure) seem to think they 'need' exposure to the classics.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Yep; just hands off, and let the schools decide for themselves what to do!

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is my favourite book - I don't mind it not being on there... I just hate the constant meddling.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

'Leaves of Grass' and 'Huckleberry Finn' are about the only works by an American author that I can confidently assert are classics, and should be taught in schools. Lots of entertaining novels coming out of our country, but little of it with any real or lasting value, and still less that I think children should be exposed to.

Good for Michael Gove, and I wish we had his likes here.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Taking 'Of Mice and Men' off is probably the first time I've ever thought 'Good Man!' about him - forcing kids to read it is unusual and cruel punishment, I think.

I'm also very glad that we didn't have to read Mockingbird when I did O levels - I did try to read it once but didn't get much past the first twenty pages or so. One of very few books I have started and not finished - the most memorable other one was Tarka the Otter, so not just American authors!