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

Gove doesn't like teachers therefore ...

How can we get rid of this man before he alienates a whole generation from education?

I think there is a general election on 2015, isn't there? There's your chance!

The rape allegation is dealt with far more subtly in "TKAM" than being a straightforward rape myth thing. The whole issue of female desire and its impossibility, of sexualised racial difference, of the power of men over women, and the history of black men being hung on charges of rape, or attempted rape - it's touched on in "TKAM". Many, many years ago, I read a lot more than I do now (!) and I recall that there is a substantial body of work written on this by women who were a lot more informed than me, had done a lot of research, and had thought deeply and profitably about it.

Perhaps that is a really great thing about this book being on the syllabus. Not just our children but we, the parents, can be prompted to go out and learn more for ourselves?

I like that: it's quite a radical notion of why a book might be enfolded within the institutional academic system: as a prompt to go out and undertake some self-education.

Cat, context should always be taught, but for GCSE it's at a much more basic level- the great depression, slavery followed by segregation and hatred, differing roles of women throughout history, The American Dream etc. But the things you say would be taught at degree level are exactly that- a much higher level of thinking. Too complex for your average GCSE student, in that they have no starting point at all for the background. I have to teach the context of 1930s America from scratch, it isn't covered in our History syllabus at all. They've heard of Rosa Parkes as part of Black History Week if you're lucky.

Weatherall- that is a ridiculous argument and one that drives me insane. Some women do lie about rape, and it was a very serious issue for black men in that time. Knowing that if a white woman cried rape they would be believed, and the accused black man most likely hanged. It makes me very angry that we're not allowed to admit that women lie about rape. Some do.

The number of women who lie about rape is minuscule compared to the number of rapists who escape conviction.

You have believed the rape myth and proved my point!

is there a book about a woman being raped and disbelieved though? Probably by someone she knows and trusts. Preferably 30 women. I take weather's point and do think that would balance things up somewhat.

Actually, I think one of the things that strikes me about the book now is precisely how it demonstrates how oppressed groups can be pitted against each other. A lot of work on "TKAM" has been written examining how the rape allegation in the novel demonstrates how women and black men can be divided (and the subsequent problematic position for black women that then arises). It's almost uncanny in its presaging of issues that arose in the 70s and late 80s/90s.

'Cry the beloved country' also heavy on race and kkk. I tutor gcse English and am always despondent that the same books/plays come every year: to kill a mocking bird, of mice and men, the crucible, a view from the bridge. Even so. I love them and love teaching them but would like more variety!

There are lots of great books/plays out there that could be included and you have to include non british material, possibly just those written originally in English (so no translations from Spanish, say, but I wish there was more political and feminist work included. Oh and a plea for a level and gcse, remove bloody carol ann Duffy! Never met a student who liked her stuff or could comfortably interpret it. And it's sooooo boring!

Should say, qualified teacher, English lit degree, 3 kids in system and labour voter

Really interesting cat. Has implications for today with benefit scroungers vs the hard working poor.

I can't comment on TKAMB, but DD1 absolutely loathes OMAM. She says next to nothing happens, entire plot fits on a postcard and it's really dull.

She's no philistine about lit. she really loves Romeo and Juliet and an Inspector Calls, she doesn't mind About a Boy and she really enjoyed Animal farm in Y9.

But Mice and Men bores her to the point she threatens to put it on the BBQ.

The fact they have used it for language and lit. is a cheat that shouldn't be possible. For DD1 and many science A level students this is the last classic lit. they may ever open.

Not that I want to support Gove, but I do think exam boards, schools and revision book printers are a bit lazy and cheap skate about set books. I did an inspector calls and the truly diabolical LOTF 40 years ago and the books were falling apart then.

It's certainly 20 years past time for a rethink of English Lit, but with experts not Gove in charge!

mill do you not have any say over it? (genuine question)

An awful lot of the new curriculum - at ks1 at least - is very England based. Not much beyond compared to now.

I can barely remember OMAM but can't remember being bored!
In fact I remember finishing it at home, soon after we started reading it in class.

I loved mocking bird. I can't see why anyone would not think it is an excellent choice for GCSE.

Of Mice and Men OTOH is dreadful. DD had to do it for GCSE and it made both of us thoroughly miserable.

When I discovered that the school could have chosen Mockingbird I was aghast.

Xposted with Overthemill.

Exactly we need far more variety and DD1 agrees 100% with you about CA Duffy. She was utterly delighted not to get her in their exam.

Weatherall, I didn't dispute the figures- if there are any that can be trusted, as obviously both numbers (women who lie/rapists who get away with it) would be difficult to prove by their very nature.

But it isn't a myth that some women lie about rape. Myth is the wrong word, and the use of it in this context drives me insane. The word myth suggests that it has never happened, ever. But of course it has.

strawberryangel - thank you. Is that right about this not being covered in History?? It was on the history syllabus that my school studied many moons ago? How could it have gone?

calamitouslywrong - yes. I think GCSEs/O levels do concentrate on the aesthetic stuff. And I guess that's right: it;s kind of like looking at the mechanics of what makes a piece of writing "go". If you were studying cars, you'd expect to look at the engine, likewise literature.

I guess I find it odd because, with "To Kill a Mockingbird" everyone knows that the aesthetics is not the most important part of what it is. It just seems a bit weird to pretend otherwise. I worry that there is something really, deeply wrong about that manoeuvre.

But perhaps it really doesn't matter, and it really is just great to get something like this widely read?

weatherall- I think that is a simplistic and superficial view of the book TBH.

If you don't believe me do you believe rape crisis?

www.rapecrisis.org.uk/commonmyths2.php

Cat, I teach Of Mice and Men, not TKAMB, but I tend to have a big focus on language and aesthetics because if you don't, they'll miss them, iyswim. We do focus on all the other stuff in class too, but they find the plot/characters/themes/context easier to write about, so we go on about it less.

In terms of History- bear in mind they won't all be studying History GCSE as it's optional.

What a fucking Dickhead.I loved To Kill a Mockingbird why change somthing that kis will enjoy. Damn him.

*kids

The word believe doesn't come into it. I know that rape can be lied about- by both men and women, in both 'directions'.

Myth is, quite simply, the wrong word, and I object to its use in this context. Regardless of who is using it.

A lot of the books are worryingly shallow, though, aren't they? So it's not going to prompt a great deal of critical thinking, questioning, and reflection on the part of students (or teacher). I'm thinking of the woeful "Lord of the Flies". Fuck me, I hate that book!

We were taught that book as our first text on arrival at secondary school. I remember what my English teacher said about it: "It's not a very good book: there's not much to it. However, precisely because it's made from cardboard, it's easy to pull apart as an example of how most books some together." That cheered me up as I trudged through it. What a crap book. With a truly misanthropic view of human potential. I always think Golding should have been forced to go and live on a fucking island as punishment for it. If human beings are that shit, when "left to our own devices", who the fuck does he think built our fucking civilisation? And invented chocolate? Super-intelligent squirrels? Fuck of William Golding. And just for that, you can't wear any fucking shoes again. Ever. Human beings created those, too. Piss off.