To really dislike An Inspector Calls?

[SheilaSybilCroft]

It’s been a GCSE text since the 1990s (and probably before.)

I really don’t like it. I hate the big fuss that is made out of eva smith being ‘pretty’ - as if it would be somehow acceptable to hound her out of jobs if she was plain and old!

She did lie to Mrs B: how was she supposed to know one story was true while another was a lie? And while attitudes to unmarried mothers have changed it’s ridiculous to pretend that someone in Eva’s position would have been met with sympathy and kindness if she’d just met a nicer sort of woman.

I know it’s an attack on the upper classes of the Edwardian period and the characters are representative rather than literal but the preachy tone and high handed sort of manner taken by the inspector is annoying.

And the film version the BBC did about ten years ago presents a saint like Eva and deviates from the text just enough to confuse students!

Or is it just me?

Love the film, love the play.

I did Macbeth and Pride and Prejudice and I LOVED it!!! This was in the 80s in my local comp and we’d also studied some great American literature as well as Lawrence and Hardy and Brontë - so many more texts than my DD and DN studied x

With plays its how they're produced/ directed that makes a difference. Plays were never meant to be read. The Stephen Daldry production was amazing.

I studied it for my drama degree in the context of Priestley's other time travel.plays like Time And The Conways. I saw that on Broadway and it was rubbish, produced like an English play of manners rather than an exploration of time travel.

The high point was surely the Greek Tragedy, it has been downhill ever since. Especially the 90s. As posters have said, it's not necessarily an endorsement of how "good" it is, just that it's well suited to the widest range of students. What do you think should replace it and why do you believe it is better?

I studied it (for 'O' Grade in Scotland) in 1976.

I saw the BBC version and loved it. I've never liked theatre (despite being an ex English teacher!) An Inspector Calls is the only play I've enjoyed.

I studied it in 2005 for GCSE.

I saw it on stage in October 24. It was brilliant.

I’m not sure what I’m missing to be honest. I mean yes, teens might be more sympathetic to a young attractive woman but it wasn’t originally written for teens!

I think her prettiness was mentioned to explain what inspired women to hate her and men to lust after her (and then hate her).

I like AIC. I really do not like Of Mice And Men which I think is still studied in about Year 8 or 9 in England - I think it’s really out of date now, and i think there are many far better books from British and Irish writers that could be used in the English curriculum. I also think we could do with some humour in our school texts … a bit of PG Wodehouse wouldn’t go amiss. The satirical Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts = perfection. More Jane Austen. If we want novels that teach us about cultural and political issues, White Teeth by Zadie Smith should be on the national curriculum imho.

Shakespeare leaves me cold. Even Michael Fassbender couldn’t make me enjoy Macbeth 🤣

I honestly don't read enough now to point to specific texts, but a lot of our curriculum doesn't represent the diversity that is within our classrooms now so I'd be interested in seeing texts that teach us more about other cultures.

I'd also be more interested in texts not all being written by old white men?
Part of the reason that children and young people disengage with the curriculum is that it appears stuffy and only represents one type of perspective.

Even the English language curriculum uses older texts rather than modern examples of writing from a diverse and internet driven society - that is missing a trick about enabling children and young people to develop critical thinking skills about things that they are accessing and experiencing now.

English teacher - it is obvious and a bit preachy, but it must be so hard to choose a GCSE text where the students who are going to get a grade 2 can grasp and retell the story, and those who should get 9s can find some subtlety and symbolism to unpick. We don’t teach AIC - we teach A Christmas Carol from that list and it faces the same criticisms.

That's not on the same list, because it's a 19th century novel

Well, I'm in Scotland, and I'm quite happy with my kids studying Scottish books. Where else should Scottish books be studied? Italy? Vietnam?

It doesn't represent one type of perspective - when properly engaged it can be viewed from a multitude of perspectives. You can say all these things about whatever you are studying. It's not a fault with the material but a lack of imagination and engagement from the student.

I'm not saying they shouldn't study Scottish texts.

I'm glad you are happy with what your children are studying.

Because the exam board class it as a modern text but to many of the kids it seems no more modern than ACC.

So what out of the current set texts would you prefer? And how are you going to fund the purchase of 200+ copies?

I loved it. DD did it at GCSE.went to see it in West end too.really good .my own GCE was Day of the triffids!

I saw it for the first time a couple of years ago when ds did it for GCSE. I absolutely loved it! I think it is incredibly thought-provoking (ds less impressed). So many themes and possible ways to interpret it. One of the best plays I’ve seen.

Just wanted to add that it was a set text in the early 80s, too.

I thought that most exam boards offered a choice of text but most schools choose AIC because of the various themes and how as described above the 9 students can grasp the nuances but the 4 students can still grasp enough to get to the 4.

It also shows the hypocritical nature of Gerald. He is cruel and unkind to the older sex workers but casts Eva as a damsel in distress to massage his own ego.
also, it reinforces the pettiness and shallow world the Birlings exist in.

I like teaching it as it’s easy for students to get, only has a few characters in it, and is easier to do alongside studying a Shakespeare text.

I hate the portrayal of Eric and Eva caring for him after he forces himself upon her. I also hate the ending of him possibly being a ghost, feels like when students say “and then I woke up” at the end of a story. In the time after teaching it in y10, I’ve had a student’s mum commit suicide and another going through a SA case, and so it’s been difficult to revise coming up to the exams.

I don't disagree with you on the question of diversity in the curriculum (as a pp said, blame Gove who short circuited any progress being made in this area with his reforms).

But I would push back on only contemporary texts helping kids understand the issues of today. Loads of Victorian literature is about technology changing ways of life. Shakespeare explores power relations between generations, ethnic groups, and men and women. At the start of this term, I gave a lecture on paranoia about immigrants in the US in the 1790s, that touched on the same law Trump is using to justify deporting immigrants. Besides which, it's also good for students to understand that people in the past had very different worldviews and that ideas we have about the "right" way to do things, might not stay that way.

25 years of teaching it and it’s not the point you don’t like it - nearly all of the teens I have taught it to do! Even the weakest of kids get the injustice and the brightest of kids can discuss hypocrisy and callousness.
The stage version is great too - I have taken kids from all backgrounds.