Question for English teachers

[WinterCarlisle]

This is something that’s been bugging me since I was at secondary school.

WHY are so many of the set texts so bloody depressing? When I was at school (mid to late 80s) we did A Kestrel for a Knave which was pretty tragic swiftly followed by Z for Zachariah which was utterly terrifying. They were no fun AT ALL to real and tbh I’m still a bit traumatised <dramatic>.

My DS is 13 and has just finished The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas and they’ve now moved onto A Monster Calls. He’s quite a sensitive boy and he’s really not liking the second one at all, especially as a family friend recently died of cancer in her mid 40s.

Obviously I understand that they need to explore different themes and life isn’t all jolly but AIBU that maybe a few cheerful books might encourage them to read a bit more rather than DOOOOOOOMMMMM??

So:

YABU - Buck up kids, stop being Wet Hens and just read about life’s depressing abyss

YANBU - There’s enough doom and gloom already in this world. Let’s read some cheerful, yet literary books while we’re at school

I capture the Castle

Cold Comfort Farm

I teach film studies. We get bleak and sad, too , but we also get genuinely moving and silly. And funny. (Invasion of the Bodysnatchers! Ferris Bueller!). But the fuckers just took Little Miss Sunshine off the spec.

We did ‘As I stepped out one Midsummer morning’ and ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ at my high school-in amongst the Shakespeare, Hardy and Austen.

I capture the castle maybe (older KS3)
Cold Comfort Farm isn’t suitable or accessible.
And if you use both and take a whole term for each you still have 7 terms if KS3…

Don't apologise, taste is subjective. My son couldn't put the Harry Potter books down. He was engrossed. He would sit and read them for hours. He hated "Holes", thought it was tedious.

Cider with Rosie

I remember reading Cider With Rosie when I was in yr7. Then we read the 39 Steps which I really liked, and Jane Eyre.
There must be hundreds of good books that aren't depressing.

I see it from the other end of the equation, which is as a university lecturer. When students arrive with us the first year is largely spent unpicking some of the misconceptions instilled in them by work at GCSE and A' Level. Pinning down 'meaning' is something that's entrenched in their mindset at first. Criticality and autonomy - which should be entrenched by this point in their education, is all-but absent.

I've run numerous focus groups with local sixth form and FE colleges to ask students intending on studying at university how they perceive literature syllabuses. The way literature is being taught at the earlier levels is a real put-off factor for many of them. Either they anticipate being given the 'dead white male' canon of western authors, or angst-ridden stuff of the depressing nature complained of above.

The genres which 'sell' more often than not are the Gothic and dystopia, but those can be taught without recourse to the ever-present Frankenstein, or the awful, awful Handmaid's Tale. Teaching can focus on elements of subversion or hope. Noughts and Crosses is a truly brutal text, but my students have found it unputdownable. It's interesting to explore that one through the lens of Apartheid. Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a deeply, deeply problematic text for more reasons than I have room to chew the fat about here, but the oversimplified, saccharine 'good Nazi vs. bad Nazi' trope is a good starting point on its own. Horrible book.

I feel for English teachers trying to make something dynamic and fascinating out of what they're given to work with at these levels. Decolonising the curriculum is a commendable aim if done properly, but tokenism fools no one and will be seen for precisely what it is.

I've previously taught at both GSE and A' level when I worked at an FE college some years ago. It was an exhausting, uphill battle to engage the students, and no wonder. It's not easy.

Someone needs to give the curriculum a really good shake-up. The war poets have been on it since the National Curriculum was first introduced in 1988!

War poetry is one of the things I remember most from secondary English. I think it's got so many merits for inclusion on the curriculum.

I teach primary not secondary but couldn't imagine dragging a class through I Capture the Castle. I found it painful to get through myself both as a teen and again as an adult; I can't imagine it appealing to low ability KS3 boys.

I found Noughts & Crosses appallingly poorly written - in fact, the kids at our school voted NOT to study it.

Philip Pullman has a wide range of fabulous works suitable for many year groups.

How about something from Daphne De Mauier either Rebecca or Jamacia Inn.

Wilkie Collins is also good The moonstone or The Woman in White. Though No Name has some really interesting social questions.

Erskine Childers' Riddle of the Sands - one of the first spy novels.

In a similar vein John Buccan's 39 Steps.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes brilliant thought provoking book though it does have a sad ending.

More recent The Martian by Andy Weirs, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky or Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (tough ending) One Day David Nicholls.

Lots to choose from.

I feel for English teachers trying to make something dynamic and fascinating out of what they're given to work with at these levels.

To be truthful, I'd rather teach most of the set texts, old chestnuts thought they are, than a lot of the stuff being suggested on here... sorry, everyone!

I miss teaching The Crucible and Of Mice and Men (at GCSE) the most since Gove interfered.

Good fun shorter texts have been A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins, and Roald Dahl's short stories. But they are all dark, nasty. Kids honestly like that.

@BusMumsHoliday

I do wonder whether some English teachers lean towards violent/horror/war themes to try to engage boys. I'm not sure if that really works.

There's something in that. My DS went to a boy's school and the books/poems studied in English were mostly war related. The English teacher he had for 3 years was obsessed with war, he ran the "war games" society and organised battle re-enactments. In history, likewise, all war related - all the sections they did at GCSE were war being Warfare through time, The crusades, Weimar and "conflict in the middle east". I think it was more about the macho teachers than that the pupils were actually interested in war. I know my son had been hoping to do the industrial revolution and/or medicine through time, but neither was ever an option!

I inherited N&X from another lecturer. The writing isn't very literary; I think it's popular for the concept and ideas. But students generally love it.

As for Pullman, HELL yes. I love his stuff, as the screen handle probably indicates!

Lots of those are excellent books, but have you ever met a Y8 reluctant reader? It’s one of my favourite books, but I cannot imagine trying to teach ‘Rebecca’ to any KS3 class! (I’d also argue that it’s another heavy, very dark text - as is ‘Klara and the Sun’.)

AQA love putting Du Maurier on the exams as unseen comprehension texts. Her writing is very dense and wordy.

Rebecca is great but more for good independent readers, I'd say.

Anyone remember P'Tang Yang Kipperbang!? That was great fun to teach!

What about the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy? It's hilarious but also kind of philosophical.

@SerafinasGoose

Someone needs to give the curriculum a really good shake-up. The war poets have been on it since the National Curriculum was first introduced in 1988!

My husband had Sassoon and Owen for GCE 'O' level in the late 1960s. There have been some curious revelations about the latter, which might make him problematical for schools these days

Yes, I remember doing those back in the late 1970s for my O level along with the Cats poems. Can't remember which Shakespeare we did! We also did Kes - yes it's depressing, but I really enjoyed reading it and really got into it - did a killer essay in the exam which was to compare and contrast his life with my own - probably got a really high score as I thought it was brilliant as I nailed so many aspects.

For A level (which I did as an adult 20 years ago) I did Mill on the Floss and Oleadner Jacarander, and King Lear, none of which are particularly uplifting I found. I also did Seamus Heaney poetry which I still have nightmares about - it was pretty dark and depressing.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the night?
Less depressing Shakespeare (comedy not blooming Macbeth and R&J- I did a Midsummer Nights Dream which was fun)
Austen

I'd love a proper reform of the curriculum, with the canon opened up and properly decolonised. I love teaching, love my subject but it's painful sometimes.

All the elements of enjoyment have slowly been removed - and as a consequence, uptake at ALevel is dire. This is particularly true for English Language.

The poetry at GCSE also really needs a shake up across all exam boards (AQA have done this for next year admittedly, but I don't teach that spec!)

Bring back (some) coursework!

I agree holly although I'm not sure it's the only reason A Level uptake is dire. At the end of the day most kids like Animal Farm, Macbeth, Christmas Carol. It's the relentless assess, assess, assess.

Kids really did love English when we did Of Mice and Men. I know it's problematic but they loved it. And when I had more freedom of choice myself, hence the PYK.

(PS - teach Film : we are well woke!)

Curious Incident is ok. It's a nice story, but there's very little in the way of opportunities for language analysis. And most kids only like it because of the swearing. Autistic kids don't, on the whole, 'identify' or 'see themselves' in Christopher. The play is slightly more interesting to study on account of the staging.

I was just discussing today how much A Level English Lit killed my interest in reading any thing 'literary'. We did A Child in Time by Ian McEwan, which is depressing and apparently every other sentence is either a sexual reference or intense grief for losing a child - which sorry, but a 16 year old can't hugely empathise with.

I think dystopian literature is the way to go. And who says the books ALL have to have huge literary merit - what about exploring why some books aren't written to be on an A Level syllabus and the Booker Prize shortlist but actually sell really well. And yes to Terry Pratchett, love Going Postal etc.