To think Michael Gove has actually got something right for once?

[privitandpetunias]

Article in the guardian saying that Mr Gove wants to remove the American literature from the GCSE curriculum and replace it with English literature (sorry can't do links). This is something I have often thought that there are so many great novels out there that are part of our cultural heritage that it would be great for our children to study.

[dawndonnaagain]

Bloody nonsense mrsruffallo the whole point is that they are not the only authors. They're the only ones being recommended by Gove though. It's about getting a balance, and some damn fine literature has been suggested on this thread alone.

[hackmum]

freerange:

"And next term, in addition to my usual work, I can spend evenings and weekends learning a new text and planning a scheme of work entirely from scratch. Hours upon hours of extra work. I'm just being lazy though."

Also, freerange, do you really want to teach exactly the same text year after year after year? Wouldn't it be more interesting and intellectually stimulating to have a bit of variety? If you are overworked - as I am sure you are - wouldn't you prefer the government to come up with a solution such as reducing the hours you have to spend in front of a class or doing admin?

[echt]

hackmum , if teachers did not have develop units of work in such painful detail to service minutely- detailed lesson plans to satisfy the requirements of OFSTED, then I'm sure they'd be up for new texts.

Also, the exam boards keep the texts because they know schools can't afford new books.

I teach in a system where I have a new exam text every year, some years three, but then I don't have to devise exhaustive and exhausting units of work to go with them. It's me and the text, and I'm trusted to get on with it.

[mrsruffallo]

l don't understand what the problem is with studying any of the authors you have listed.
They are not the only ones being recommended by Gove though.
Only 70-80% of suggested books will be from the english canon. Therefore other books will be studied.
'Dead White People'- an ignorant label if there ever was one- will come up a lot in the study of English literature. Their influence and styles are varied. Their contributions are important.

[mrsruffallo]

'From 2015, teenagers taking the OCR English literature exam will have to study a pre-20th-century novel by a British author, poetry by the Romantics, and a Shakespeare play.'
What on earth is wrong with this?

[mrsruffallo]

"Kids will be put off doing A-level literature by this. Many teenagers will think that being made to read Dickens aged 16 is just tedious. This will just grind children down."

Really???

[noblegiraffe]

Gove hasn't recommended any authors other than Shakespeare. The requirements for detailed study for English lit include
At least one Shakespeare play
At least one 19th century novel (could be non-British so long as written originally in English)
Some poetry post 1729 including some of the Romantics
Some British fiction/drama post-1914.

Any specific authors being bandied about come from the exam boards.

The spec also says a wide range of texts should be read, there is nothing banning any particular book or class of literature.

[mrsruffallo]

I am guessing that you agree with the alleged banning of the aforementioned American classics then? After all, the authors are both 'dead white men'.

[TucsonGirl]

If Dickens puts off kids doing A-Level literature, than that can only be a good thing, surely? Because if they can't handle Dickens, they aren't up to doing the course.

[mrsruffallo]

Sorry , meant 'dead white people' of course!

[TucsonGirl]

Harper Lee is still alive.

[mrsruffallo]

'To automatically assert their literary prestige at the expense of others is offensive and ignorant'

What part of the new requirements are you referring to? As ng states 'Gove hasn't recommended any authors other than Shakespeare'.

' add some literary criticism to your reading list.'
Sure! What do you recommend?

[mrsruffallo]

Yes, you are right, sorry. She's okay to study then?

[mrsruffallo]

I wasn't aware I was sparring with you. I have a different opinion to you, that seems clear. I don't have time to mull over all of your posts, if you feel I am looking for a fight then please be assured that I am not. Feel to post with no further comment from me.

[specialsubject]

I just hope for the removal of the hopelessly dated works of Jane Austen. I know it is of its time, but the ghastliness of Pride and Prejudice still rankles with me.

[LeBearPolar]

'From 2015, teenagers taking the OCR English literature exam will have to study a pre-20th-century novel by a British author, poetry by the Romantics, and a Shakespeare play.'
What on earth is wrong with this?

It's so unimaginative. There is so much fantastic literature out there which we should be exposing children to - so many wonderful poets writing now, for example, and so many wonderful, challenging texts (someone mentioned Half of a Yellow Sun which is a brilliant novel) which have been written in the twentieth and twenty first century. So much which could inspire and challenge teenagers because it is immediately, powerfully relevant to the world they understand.

There is nothing wrong with teaching the classics, of course not, and Shakespeare manages to transcend the centuries like no other writer. But why do we have to go back to Dickens, Austen, Bronte et al again and again and again as if no-one else ever wrote anything worth studying or discussing?

[junkfoodaddict]

I studied: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Colour Purple, The Tempest, Henry (the something), Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, The Crucible and Don Juan at GCSE and A Level - there could have been more but if there was, they didn't have much of an impact.

Don Juan was crap - taught by an eccentric teacher who really had no place in High School and should have been mentoring PhD students or something!

The Colour Purple and To Kill a Mockingbird were my all time favourites. Written by American authors. I care very little about the country of 'origin' of these books. What is important is the literary skills, themes and topic of conversation they promote and how much influence they have on a person's life and choices. They kept me interested in literature at a time when a f*ing eccentric teacher was turning me off!

But can someone please tell me the name of this book I studied in Y9: Featured three children; a girl being the oldest and the youngest a boy the characters called 'Little Man' or 'Christopher' as his real name I think. I remember the author talking about the red dust on the road as the children walked the long walk to school. Set in the American South and children were segregated according to colour. Would LOVE to read it again.