The Philistines Are Not Just At The Gates ...

[sunny-dave]

... they are running education.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27563466


So out go two of the greatest books ever written - 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' and 'Of Mice and Men' - and in come Russell Brand and Dizzee Rascal.


Jesus wept.

[Jeza]

I understand what you're saying chilli but back then the N word was used and was not always derogatory.

[naomi24]

The 'N' word. Isn't that ridiculous? Everyone knows what you're saying, and the word formulates in every mind whenever the 'N' word is mentioned, but no one can actually say it. Crazy!

Time for bed. Night all.

[anneasquith]

sher raises a good point.

[ChillDoubt]

I understand what you're saying chilli but back then the N word was used and was not always derogatory.
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Young Chill understood that Jeza, didn't make it any less comfortable for him to have to write it though when analysing and critiquing it.

[EcclesCake]

Dave, To Kill a Mockingbird was a modern, contemporary offering when I studied it. I would like to think that there are similar contemporary offerings to offer today's GCSE students.

[Svejk]

strange day to announce this. Bank Holiday Sunday. Sounds like pretty standard, left wing, rabble-rousing to me. I'm confident a very different picture will emerge when the 'truth' comes out.

[ChillDoubt]

Not that I'd ever want to support Govey but on a personal level most of the learning I did in my High School years happened when I was at home.
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I agree. In the space of 12 months I went from reading my cousin's Famous 5 collection to Sven Hassel books lent to me by my classmates!

[ChillDoubt]

Some suggestions as alternatives. Most are Booker Prize winners/nominees:

The Remains of the Day
Midnight's Children
Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
The God of Small Things
Life of Pi
Schindler's Ark

[gness]

Comes as no surprise to me, Dave....I wept with Jesus some years ago when I saw the way things were going....
If you are in education, at the raw end of those making this sort of decision... well you get out....or go under.

Russell Brand????

[mikey4444]

This is dreadful news. "Mocking Bird" has probably been the most influential book when it comes to combating racism worldwide. To leave it out of our curriculum is just bl**dy stupid. The same for the Steinbeck. We read "The Grapes of Wrath" at school in the 60's, alongside "The Day of the Triffids", and I can't see why they can't co-exist now.

The thought of that tw*t Russell Brand being studied instead of any of the above authors fills me with great sadness and rage. If you only wanted one reason to ditch the Toties, along with this tiresome Secretary of State, you need look no further than this announcement.

Don't even get me started on somebody with a name like Dizzee Rascal...he can't even spell correctly !

[naomi24]

//If you only wanted one reason to ditch the Toties, along with this tiresome Secretary of State, you need look no further than this announcement. //

I don't agree with what he's doing - but that's no reason to trust Labour with education. Their track record speaks for itself.

[mikey4444]

But naomi...its a Tory Education minister that wants to kick these books out of our schools. You may or not be right about Labour but that can be debated....Gove's position appears to be a fact.

I trust that its not a position that you are in favour of ?

[naomi24]

Mikey, do you ever really read what anyone else says - or are you always blinded by your eagerness to add your two-pennyworth?

I'll say it again. I don't agree with what he's doing.

[mikey4444]

That is perfectly clear now naomi !

[naomi24]

Jolly good.

[kvalidir]

This is horrible, but I think it's to be expected that a lot of young people don't read the so called 'serious' literature because they are not introduced to it early enough to gain a love of it or understanding of it and it appears not to be taught creatively. If children of 7 aren't already engrossed in Dickens then they probably never will be. I had to buy a present for someone's school going child and I was totally amazed at what they consider age appropriate for 8-9 year olds when I looked- it's baby stuff, with flimsy ridiculous plots and is often badly written - how can anyone progress to loving great literature when so little is expected of them reading wise. I bought her a full set of Marcus Sedgewick stuff in the end which I think is technically geared towards teenagers, and she loves them, once she got the notion it wasn't all kiddy nonsense.

[mikey4444]

Anybody on here this morning going to defend giving schoolchildren the collected works of Russell Brand and Dizzee Rascal to study at school ?

This is a Tory Party proposal and we have plenty of right-wingers here on AB, but nobody to speak up for the awful Gove apparently !

[Svejk]

this whole story is typical, left-wing flim-flam. Take a grain of truth from here, add a grain from there, twist it all around and hey-ho we're burning books (mmm, just like, er, the Nazis)
The whole purpose of Gove's changes is to stop kids having Mr Rascal's lyrics and Brand's musings forced on them by 'trendy' left-wingers.
Although Shakespeare, Keats and Shelley have little to say about race relations or environmental studies would it kill English Literature students to have a passing acquaintance with them?

[Svejk]

mikey4444 /// Anybody on here this morning going to defend giving schoolchildren the collected works of Russell Brand and Dizzee Rascal to study at school ?

This is a Tory Party proposal ///

No it isn't. In fact you couldn't be more wrong.

[factor-fiction]

I'd much rather see Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird being studied than Dizzee Rascal and Russelll Brand- but shouldn't the concerns about the the proposed writers be addressed to the exam boards- just OCR in fact- as 'm sure Mr Gove, for all his faults, has never heard of Dizzee Rascal and certainly has not suggested using either of these two writers.
There was a professor of English on Radio 4 recently though who supported the edea