To think it's a shame that To Kill a Mockingbird is no longer taught at GCSE

[liberia03]

At a time when the words of Atticus Finch might help: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”, it seems a shame that this book's not taught any more, alongside any non British writers. Non British writers aren't banned, they're just not part of the exam syllabuses anymore replaced by a 'work of fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards'.

Wondering what other books we would like the next generation to learn about or even read before they leave school?

To me, "Catcher in the Rye" was probably the most influential beek I read as a teen

I read it not long ago and I just didn't get it. Really I didn't. Maybe it's because I'm a crummy old guy. That's the thing about crummy old guys, they're always reading things and not getting them. Anyway I think it's damn boring if you must know, I swear to God I do, because this is 2017 and not a million years ago when the teenage revolution was about to begin. That's the thing about teenagers, they're always revolting. They really are.

P.S. When is Douglas Adams going to make it on the syllabus?

There are no American authors on the new GCSE exam specs, which will be first examined with the current y11. If you read it last year then that is because you were doing the old spec.

Many departments have cupboards full of Mockingbird and OMAM and are therefore teaching them lower down the school, often in y9.

That's England only, however. OMAM and Mockingbird are still on the syllabus in Wales. I don't know about Scotland.

HG Wells is amazing and underrated.

Amazed at the Austen dismissals on here! She was the precursor to so called chick lit, the mother of romantic tropes, with so much intelligence and wit, and such beautiful flow to her prose.

Shakespeare now, Shakespeare I believe is rather like The Emperor's New Clothes. There's a kind of hysteria surrounding his works, a fear of calling that the Emperor is naked and outing yourself as an uncouth prole. Hyped to be high-brow, Shakespeare's plays were written as entertainment for the uneducated masses. Their performance accompanied bear-baiting and cock fighting. Remove the antiquated vernacular and you'll find the most basic of tales, no more than a pot boiler written in a fancy tongue. They have value in a historical context, but do they really need to be held in such reverence?

Another spectacular English author not mentioned here is Iris Murdoch. The Sea, The Sea is a masterclass in genius composition. She manages to let the reader in on the book's secret long before it's narrator is aware of what's going on, I've not seen that writers device replicated with such aplomb in anything else I've read.

I finished school in 2000 and didn't read that book. We read lord of the flies instead. There are many other great books to choose from.

I did TKAMB for GCSE. I got into trouble with my teacher for arguing that it wasn't very well written (which is still my view). Important subject matter, poorly written book.

We did Jane sodding Eyre for GCSE.

A whole novel about tramping across a moor and whinging.

Hated it.

In the current climate, I hope all schools are teaching 1984!

It's all about Lord of the Flies now. Hateful bloody book

TKAMB has been banned in some US schools because of racist language.

Given what's happening at the moment, the school curriculum suddenly becomes very relevant.

Books tell us a lot. The history syllabus can be prescriptive. Geography teaches us about the world especially geopolitics. Media studies. Critical thinking.

A Government that dictates a prescriptive curriculum can guide children's perspectives. Yes, you can and should learn outside of school but we need children and adults prepared to do that.

Shakespeare now, Shakespeare I believe is rather like The Emperor's New Clothes. There's a kind of hysteria surrounding his works, a fear of calling that the Emperor is naked and outing yourself as an uncouth prole. Hyped to be high-brow, Shakespeare's plays were written as entertainment for the uneducated masses. Their performance accompanied bear-baiting and cock fighting. Remove the antiquated vernacular and you'll find the most basic of tales, no more than a pot boiler written in a fancy tongue. They have value in a historical context, but do they really need to be held in such reverence?

Oh it's SO not about the plot. It's about the sublime language. Shakespeare can convey in a word, in a phrase or a sentence a wealth of emotion and meaning. Nobody else comes close.

Shakespeare's language is a relic and, beyond historic value, I don't see any relevance in learning it today. Now a poet like Dylan Thomas and his language, "ghosts of breath" to describe a freezing day for example, that fires the imagination.

However, I'm listening stonecircle. Do you have a particular sonnet or phrase in mind?

HG Wells is amazing and underrated.

badhotfanny

I've never seen directly political references in any grammar books, but this from the OCR The Little Book of Spelling, Punctuation and
Grammar (SPaG) just brought out.
" Some voters were fed up with the Coalition government, so they effected a change by voting for a Conservative one." ( to differentiate between 'affect' and 'effect'.

Getting rid of non British writers, seemed strange, reductive, then just plain racist.
Under Gove's watch.

I was surprised to learn that TKAM was a GCSE level text - it is a middle school text in the US. William Faulkner is far more interesting and nuanced.

Cold omfort farm here and of mice and men left school .early 90s

William Faulkner- beautiful writer.
Do you teach any Toni Morrison text in US schools Mominatrix?

*We did Jane sodding Eyre for GCSE.

A whole novel about tramping across a moor and whinging.

Hated it*

I think all the Bronte sisters' works are utterly sublime especially WH and TOWH but in particular Emily's poetry is perfection.

OP you inspired me to go looking at the texts for the Irish Leaving Cert English exam. It was a (relatively fond) trip down memory lane - and lovely to see that there is a good selection of Irish and non-Irish, older and more modern options.

Mind you, the schools all probably still do King Lear, Wuthering Heights and the Great Gatsby

(Irish MNer of my vintage... Yeats and Kavanagh are gone! I remember the fuss each year of whether it was a Yeats year and trying to predict whether he's come up or not...!)

While I no longer teach in the UK, I have reservations about the literary worth of TKAM in terms of language and structure, it always seems to be valued for admired social attitudes and values. A damn good read, though.

I'm guessing the the study at CGSE and above has to have some focus on more complex literary qualities. Certainly Jekyll and Hyde and Frankenstein have these. Even the deceptively simple Of Mice and Men is, as noted upthread, beautifully structured with appropriate imagery. In fact Steinbeck only screws ups twice in the whole text, and this can be point of study.

I quite like the idea of English Literature being...English Literature! We have such an incredibly rich history of writing. I did GCSE and A Level Eng Lit, and can't remember which texts were for which, but I did Far From the Madding Crowd, Wuthering Heights, possibly Jane Eyre (or that may have been pre-GCSE).

We had equal weight to prose, poetry and plays, so I studied a lot of Shakespeare throughout secondary (Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice, Antony & Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, all great stories. This are the ones I remember), and a variety of poets (Keats, Larkin, Heany, Blake off top of head).

TKAMB is definitely reading for enjoyment rather than analysis IMO, but it's a book I have really enjoyed, and think its relevance is great perhaps for reluctant readers? I was a really avid reader, and my school expected us to read widely. I also recall doing independent research on DH Lawrence and Thornton Wilder, not sure if that was for coursework maybe. And I adored Orwell (and am introducing my 11YO DD to Animal Farm soon, after discussing it with her this week and her saying she really wanted to read it).

I think other English writing (I guess I mean non-UK) is great too, but when our UK authors are studied all around the globe, I think it's important we learn about them too.

Try this, as an evocation of bereavement. It's about child, but would fit any loss, Sleep

Constance
III iv 98
Verse
King John

Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?
Fare you well: had you such a loss as I,
I could give better comfort than you do.
I will not keep this form upon my head,
When there is such disorder in my wit.
O Lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son!
My life, my joy, my food, my all the world!
My widow-comfort, and my sorrows' cure!

Some relic:

More words and phrases coined by the Bard

• "For goodness sake" - Henry VIII
• "Neither here not there" - Othello
• "Mum's the word" - Henry VI, Part II
• "Eaten out of house and home" - Henry IV, Part II
• "Rant" - Hamlet
• "Knock knock! Who's there?" - Macbeth
• "All's well that ends well" - All's Well That Ends Well
• "With bated breath" - The Merchant of Venice
• "A wild goose chase" - Romeo and Juliet
• "Assassination" - Macbeth
• "Too much of a good thing" - As You Like It
• "A heart of gold" - Henry V
• "Such stuff as dreams are made on" - The Tempest
• "Fashionable" - Troilus and Cressida
• "What the dickens" - The Merry Wives of Windsor
• "Puking" - As You Like It
• "Lie low" - Much Ado About Nothing
• "Dead as a doornail" - Henry VI, Part II
• "Not slept one wink" -Cymbeline
• "Foregone conclusion" - Othello
• "The world's mine oyster" - The Merry Wives of Windsor
• "Obscene" - Love's Labour's Lost
• "Bedazzled" - The Taming of the Shrew
• "In stitches" - Twelfth Night
• "Addiction" - Othello
• "Naked truth" - Love's Labour's Lost
• "Faint-hearted" - Henry VI, Part I
• "Send him packing" - Henry IV
• "Vanish into thin air" - Othello
• "Swagger" - Henry V
• "Own flesh and blood" - Hamlet
• "Truth will out" - The Merchant of Venice
• "Zany" - Love's Labour's Lost
• "Give the devil his due" - Henry IV, Part I
• "There's method in my madness" - Hamlet
• "Salad days" - Antony and Cleopatra
• "Wear your heart on your sleeve" - Othello
• "Spotless reputation" - Richard II
• "Full circle" - King Lear
• "There's the rub" - Hamlet
• "All of a sudden" - The Taming of the Shrew