Gove kills the mockingbird with ban on US classic novels ...what do you think?

[mrz]

www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/article1414764.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2014_05_24

mrz - is that a current list? So various thing will go, but there are others which are just as good and will stay.

The DfE's subject content for GCSE Eng Lit hasn't banned anything. It does say there has to be one post 1914 British text but no limit on what other books can be included.

What the exam boards do within that is up to them.

This looks like the media spinning the story. The guardian's coverage is a bit more balanced - story

English Lit subject content from DfE

Yes that's the current set text list

Bonsoir, a bit off topic, but a question on French literature. I did French A-level and we studied three books, L'Etranger by Camus, Un Sac de Billes by Joffo and La Symphonie Pastorale by Gide. I was wondering where they would fit in to the classic literature your DS is studying. Are they the sort of thing he'd study, or would they be considered easy reads?

Un Sac de Billes was read by both DSSs in the first year of secondary school IIRC. I'd have to check when/if they read L'Etranger and La Symphonie Pastorale but I am pretty sure neither of them are on their bac list.

I did a French and Spanish literature degree, btw, and I didn't read half the stuff for my degree that the DSSs have read for their French bac exam!

I should point out that for all French pupils study reams of classic literature and can do impressive levels of analysis I am never very impressed with their independent writing skills (be they creative or analytical). Literature is not everything.

Absolutely outrageous!!! Surely that teenagers READ is the issue, and that they read wonderful, enriching books. Will he be banning Chinua Achebe and Albert Camus next and denying access to beautiful African literature too??? I might be tempted to say our (Mis)Education Minister is a tad discriminatory....What next? Book Burning???!!!

He hasn't banned anything. But Camus is definitely not allowed on the English lit spec either, what with not being written in English.

Outrageous! What next, banning Chinua Achebe and Albert Camus and denying children access to beautiful and thought-provoking African literature too?? Or Dylan Thomas for not being English? What next, book burning??? Ditching the War Poets? When did we stop living in a world and instead inhabit a place that stops at the sea or Hadrian's Wall???

I think it is perfectly reasonable to conceive of an English literature GCSE that is just that - English literature.

There could perhaps be a comparative literature GCSE too?

noblegiraffe is correct he hasn't banned any books (that's newspaper hype) the books have simply been removed from approved exam list so schools will need to replace all their texts at what I assume will be considerable cost.

They won't have to replace all their texts though, they'll still get use out of the Shakespeare, I think exam boards provide their own poetry anthologies for free. There will probably be plenty of overlap between what's currently studied and the 20th century literature requirement so they could probably keep Inspector Calls or Animal Farm or whatever. I don't think they'll need to buy a complete new suite of texts.

And they could always use the current copies of OMAM or whatever at KS3.

only if they have been using An Inspector Calls and Animal Farm - many schools don't.

The AQA spec you listed had an English Literary Heritage section which would surely do for either 19th or 20th century requirements? It had 6 sections whereas the new spec only has 4, so with Shakespeare and poetry covered, it'll be max two new texts to buy, and schools will probably already have a set that covers one of those categories.

2 texts x £5.00+ x 600, 000 potential sudents

Maybe English departments need to get clever about the use of free ebooks.

Other departments certainly have it worse in the needing to buy new books stakes.

Free Ebooks which they distribute to the students how exactly?

Bonsoir, would your English literature course rule out all Irish, Scottish and welsh authors then?

That seems very limited indeed to me!

Evil, they are available on the internet. Most kids have access to the internet at home. Lots of GCSE students have smartphones onto which you can download books. Schools have technology suites, class sets of iPads etc. I'm sure the number of physical copies needed could be reduced, if really necessary.

Perhaps the schools should buy every student an e-reader so they can access the free e books £99 x 600 000 potential students - that makes sense

The schools where all the kids have iPads are laughing. You can get ereaders for £50, and probably a bulk discount? I don't know, maybe that is the future for English departments? Think of having immediate access to all the works of Shakespeare/Dickens/Austen instead of just one dogeared book with penises liberally scrawled on it.

I did a lesson with Y10 the other day where they needed access to the internet. 2/3s of them could get what I needed on their phones. Certainly kids today already carry a lot of computing power in their pockets that could plug a gap if needed.

Don't knock the penis drawings, noble.

They might be the only thing that gets a reluctant reader to open a book