To think an English teacher should know poems that AREN'T on the examination syllabus?

[Shiningbaubles]

And be familiar with Shakespeare plays other than Romeo and Juliet?

Friend is training but 'hates poetry" and 'hates Shakespeare.'

Or am I being harsh?

It's possible to teach a text you don't like, but much, much more fun when it's something you love - and I am a far better teacher of things that I feel passionate about.

Every GCSE poetry anthology ever released has had some absolute shockers in - it's so hard to summon up enthusiasm for Wordsworth, for example!

DD and I went to an open evening a couple of months ago for a sixth form. We went to presentations by various subject teachers - a few were a bit uninspiring but the English teacher seemed really enthusiastic about her subject, which was great.

She then mentioned that one of the texts she would be teaching was The History Boys - which, she said, was set in the 1950s.

I saw The History Boys when it was first performed at the National Theatre, and it's set in the 1980s.

I am a retired English teacher and YANBU. Your friend will be in real trouble once she is faced with a GCSE syllabus to teach. I don't have any sympathy with someone who says they hate poetry..all of it? Pam Ayres to John Donne, limericks and Lycidas, nursery rhymes and narrative verse!
She may have a degree in English but she isn't fit to teac it.

Teach

I haven't read the full thread but laurie , I completely agree with you, I love watching Shakespeare being performed but really don't enjoy reading the plays.
I have a degree in English and read anything from the classics to lightweight chick lit, but no, I don't enjoy reading Shakespeare.

Sad. I mean, it's fine to prefer other authors, it's fine to prefer prose to poetry. But really, how can anyone hate all Shakespeare!? It's just so odd--he wrote so much on so many powerful themes.

If she teaches EL then she is going to have to spend a lot of time on both of these things.

I find it sad and worrying that people like this are even able to get on teacher training courses. I know that there are staffing issues in many parts of the country, but are people really that desperate?

She won't actually have much choice if she is to teach at exam level. A good teacher would encourage reading beyond set texts, cross referencing and critical appreciation, putting her own likes/dislikes aside.

My English teacher was the best teacher I have ever had (and I'm still sorry Mr D that you felt I was "throwing my life away" by studying engineering instead of something worthwhile). He hated novels. Described them as a lesser form of literature and refused to study them with us. However, he loved poetry, we read well beyond the curriculum; drama, which was always done through reading in class; and the short story, which he was a huge enthusiast for. He had a passion for Shakespeare which he passed on to many of us but did acknowledge that until it was spoken out loud it was hard to understand, so we read it out loud and went to see it (Stratford and Glasgow from the North East of Scotland, regularly).
I am very sad that my own children have had English teachers who have almost totally failed to enthuse them about any form of literature. Mostly because of the endless weeks they spend wading painstakingly through frigging Jane Eyre and similar turgid novels rather than something interesting, exciting and stimulating (for which the curriculum seems to be to blame).
Secretly I would have loved to study English literature and I am saddened to think that university places are being wasted on students who cannot appreciate what they are studying and worse that they are going on to teach something they don't like. Truly those who can't...

Jane Eyre was the book ruined for me after months and months of dissection and analysis.

Me too.
Why can't a person simply read a book and Enjoy it! For enjoyment's sake.
Why can't the understanding and enjoyment of something be enough in itself? Why do they want you to dissect it and analysis it? shows ignorance I know

If you don't love poetry you don't love language with all its nuances. Primary school pupils usually love reading, performing and writing poetry. There is such a wide range of styles and genres. YADNBU Why is your friend training as an English teacher? Given all the pressures on teachers today, it's a pretty grim job if you don't love your subject.

chemenger: "Mostly because of the endless weeks they spend wading painstakingly through frigging Jane Eyre and similar turgid novels rather than something interesting, exciting and stimulating (for which the curriculum seems to be to blame)."

But this is just a matter of opinion - I remember reading Jane Eyre when I was 14 (not as part of my English course) and being completely gripped from beginning to end. It's still one of my favourite books.

My DD, on the other hand, has had to study Of Mice and Men, which I regard as immensely dull in comparison if mercifully short.

Novels teach us things, they guide us through relationships, often form our opinions and political beliefs, they change society, the way we think.
Robert Tressell, Charles Dickens and Ken Kesey all wrote novels that changed thinking, ergo, it's important to deconstruct, to look at what somebody is trying to say and why they're saying it.

PS. Much prefer Becky Sharpe to Jane Eyre!

ALL THEY TEACH is romeo and juliet and lord of the fucking flies

thats all they need to teach

YANBU. I think that a passion for one's subject is one of the essential elements of being a good teacher. Without that, it is difficult to imagine how a teacher could communicate any interest or insight into the material.

I'll always remember a conversation I once had with a student (a university student, no less). She mentioned that she enjoyed writing poetry and I asked her who her favourite poets were. She replied, "Oh, I never read poetry. I just write it."

I too an A J Donne lover. And Blake and the Metaphysicals.

Recently there was wonderful thread on favourite song lyrics. So many wonderful lines - and it was poetry. We can barely live without it.
Ads, jingles, songs, slogans - I am NOT saying they are poetry but there is a link.

Aside from that I despair over people going in to teaching just becasue they can. I was inspired by teachers. Men and women who LOVED what they taught and lit the world up for me.

Does she really hate it, though, or is she just saying it?

I'm a medievalist and dislike Chaucer, which is our bread and butter. I enjoy teaching him, though. It's not the same thing.

I find it odd to 'hate poetry' though. That sounds, well, a bit immature TBH.

I would not be overly-fussed about an English teacher's literary likes and dislikes. I would, though, want her or him to be extremely well-read across a variety of genres.

Poems. Its just
words written
In a shape

I have been teaching English for 16 years - I hate reading Shakespeare but enjoy watching it. I do not know every Shakespeare play but know plenty.
I also hate Pride and Prejudice and lots of different books. I enjoy all different types of literatures it's like saying an art teacher must know every piece of art and a history teacher know every date of every event.
In my degree I did a foundation year which covered all of the usual suspects and then I chose what I enjoyed for the last two years - I did children's literature, Chaucer, romantic poetry, American literature, women's literature, teen fiction, language, politics .... Many topics all which are relevant. Shakespeare is a small part in a vast syllabus - poetry is reading and writing poetry.
You would be hard pushed to find any job where someone knew every single aspect of their field when it is so vast.
So yes yabu

meanjulio--I find the idea of teachers without an English degree teaching English to be quite shocking.

I agree lionheart [was that aimed at me?]

I'm not a teacher but have an English degree. I think some Shakespeare is fantastic but that he wrote quite a number of mediocre 'jobbing' plays. A lot of poetry doesn't particularly do it for me either although I agree that hating all of it sounds a bit strange. But the novel.... now that, for me is The Thing. I also like enjoy talking about writers whose work I don't like

Literature can be very marmite and having strong opinions - for or against - can make the study more interesting. If your friend never reads or goes to the theatre and thinks it's all 'meh' then I'd be worried. But providing she's passionate about some of it and and enjoys articulating her views, then I think it's fine.

Did she study English Literature at degree level in an English speaking country? If so, I simply don't believe that she hasn't had to study several Shakespeare plays and a couple of periods of poetry. She may not have enjoyed it, but I don't believe she didn't have to do it.

Yes, meanjulio. Do you think it is more common now?