If only they had had African Dads

[vetran]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-teaching.html

Nadhim Zahawi slams GCSE exam board's 'cultural vandalism' after it cut English literary giants Wilfred Owen and Philip Larkin from poetry syllabus for LGBT, black and disabled voices

• Thomas Hardy and Wilfred Owen have been removed from English GCSEs
• Keats and Philip Larkin have also been axed in the new diversity push
• Hardy and Owen historians have slammed move to get rid of the 'crucial' works

Seems English literature is not diverse enough so we need to study artists we have never heard of.
Maybe someone should tell them Owen & Sassoon were Gay?

https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/a...ugh-hard-times

or Larkin Dabbled?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/...oks.humanities

[SueEllen]

The subject is English not history.

Last time I checked English was a living language.

There is no point children born in the 21st Century studying people from the beginning or middle of last century, they may as well study people who are around now.

It thought it was amusing when one of my young relations was studying stuff that happened in the early 90s in history, as anything he wasn't alive for was considered history.

[WTFH]

Illegal immigrant slams English literature, and the Wail is supporting him.

Next they’ll be saying that it’s someone else’s fault for the last 12 years of government, apart from the government.

[vetran]

The subject is English not history.

Last time I checked English was a living language.

There is no point children born in the 21st Century studying people from the beginning or middle of last century, they may as well study people who are around now.

It thought it was amusing when one of my young relations was studying stuff that happened in the early 90s in history, as anything he wasn't alive for was considered history.

Actually it was English literature. The finest poets of our history should be studied.

[SueEllen]

Actually it was English literature. The finest poets of our history should be studied.

Not at GCSE level.

At A level and higher yes.

At GCSE you want pupils to be interested enough to take the subject further.

Studying Shakespeare is hard and boring enough for most 14 -16 year olds, so they don't need to study the historic texts of more people born centuries before them.

[vetran]

Not at GCSE level.

At A level and higher yes.

At GCSE you want pupils to be interested enough to take the subject further.

Studying Shakespeare is hard and boring enough for most 14 -16 year olds, so they don't need to study the historic texts of more people born centuries before them.

I still reference Merchant of Venice & Hamlet they were exciting, sorry if you didn't find them so.

Owen & Sassoon documented a period no one can understand.

A few 'poets' chosen based on their colour aren't really a replacement. If you think they have something to say then great for you.

[SueEllen]

I still reference Merchant of Venice & Hamlet they were exciting, sorry if you didn't find them so.

I didn't do Merchant of Venice and Hamlet.

The fun with Shakespeare is that you can study different plays as there are lots of them.

Owen & Sassoon documented a period no one can understand.

Again did different authors and poets who documented different eras.

Oddly some were female. The foreign ones were American.

You would have heard of most of their works.

A few 'poets' chosen based on their colour aren't really a replacement. If you think they have something to say then great for you.

Of course they have something to say.

All authors do.

Poems and novels haven't stopped being written by British writers just because you left school.

You forget that someone studying books on those reading lists wasn't alive when Blair was PM.

[SueEllen]

Oh btw I suspect the Tories would be silent if Dickens was dropped completely.

You wouldn't want teen children doing poverty comparisons with the Victorian era.

[NotAllThere]

Of course they have something to say.

All authors do.

True. But not all of it is worth listening to.

Oh btw I suspect the Tories would be silent if Dickens was dropped completely.

You wouldn't want teen children doing poverty comparisons with the Victorian era.

[WTFH]

Heaney, Joyce, Frost, CS Lewis… are they offensive to the Wail too?

When most Wail readers were studying the War Poets, it was only 50 years since the end of the Great War. That would be the equivalent today of a pupil studying Bohemian Rhapsody, The Wall and Let It Be.
I realise there’s a policy of “we must live in the past”, but some times it helps to learn history in history classes, and literature in lit classes. Inspiring people to read and form critical opinion is a very important part of growing up. If they just read Hardy and Owen, there is less critical thinking involved. But the Wail doesn’t want to encourage critical thinking, or we might challenge the major media sources and their output.