In Defence of Poetry

Following the censoring of Carol Ann Duffy's poem Education for Leisure from the school curriculum, poets, critics, teachers and students will debate the significance of this ban. Should children be protected from controversial literature? Should works be studied because of their literary merit or as springboards to discuss particular issues? Should students be taught to analyse poems in order to understand their meaning or should they be asked to provide a personal response? How important should poetry be in teaching English? Who should determine the content of the school curriculum and according to what criteria? What are the roles of the poet, the critic, the teacher and the reader in upholding the importance of poetry? And what, if any, is the role of government?

Read site visitor responses to the questions raised by the debate...

 

English teacher, Michele Ledda, has launched a petition against the banning of Carol Ann Duffy's poem, 'Education for Leisure'. (Read the poem below.)

The exam board AQA has removed the poem from its GCSE anthology, and has asked schools to destroy old copies containing the poem, because it supposedly glorified knife crime.

The petition reads:

 

To: Assessment and Qualifications Alliance

We strongly oppose the censoring of Carol Ann Duffy's poem ‘Education for Leisure’ by the examination board AQA, which has removed it from its anthology because it deals with the contentious issue of knife crime. AQA's decision is an arbitrary and cowardly action, a token gesture to show that it is a ‘responsible’ and ‘sensitive’ organisation, from a body that has neither the authority nor the nerve to exclude much more violent works from its syllabus, such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The English curriculum should not be used to score cheap political points, to advance corporate interests or for a back-covering exercise by an unaccountable organisation. Poems should be studied for their literary and therefore educational value, not because they carry the correct political message.

With its decision to ban ‘Education for Leisure’, AQA has shown the country that it is blatantly indifferent to the literary merits of the works it selects. Such a philistine and bureaucratic organisation does not deserve to be entrusted with the important task of shaping the English curriculum and deciding which poems our children will study. Literature is a public good, and AQA has no business banning it. We demand that AQA reverse its decision immediately.

 

Sign the petition here here.

If you'd like to support this campaign further, please forward details of the petition to your friends and contacts.

 

EDUCATION FOR LEISURE

Today I am going to kill something. Anything.
I have had enough of being ignored and today
I am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,
a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets
I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.
We did that at school. Shakespeare. It was in
another language and now the fly is in another language.
I breathe out talent on the glass to write my name.
I am a genius. I could be anything at all, with half
the chance. But today I am going to change the world.
Something's world. The cat avoids me. The cat
knows I am a genius, and has hidden itself.
I pour the goldfish down the bog. I pull the chain.
I see that it is good. The budgie is panicking.
Once a fortnight, I walk the two miles into town
For signing on. They don't appreciate my autograph.
There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radio
and tell the man he's talking to a superstar.
He cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go out.
The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

— Carol Ann Duffy

 

Following the ban that came a result of three complaints – the most passionate of which was from Pat Schofield, an exam invigilator who described the poem as "absolutely horrendous" and Carol Ann Duffy's work as "a bit weird", Duffy wrote the following:

 

MRS SCHOFIELD'S GSCE

You must prepare your bosom for his knife,
said Portia to Antonio in which
of Shakespeare's Comedies? Who killed his wife,
insane with jealousy? And which Scots witch
knew Something wicked this way comes? Who said
Is this a dagger which I see? Which Tragedy?
Whose blade was drawn which led to Tybalt's death?
To whom did dying Caesar say Et tu? And why?
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark - do you
know what this means? Explain how poetry
pursues the human like the smitten moon
above the weeping, laughing earth; how we
make prayers of it. Nothing will come of nothing:
speak again. Said by which King? You may begin.

— Carol Ann Duffy

 

> An English teacher talks about the petition and argues that this is an important issue, whether we're a fan of the poem or not

> Wes Brown, editor of The Cadaverine, on why this poem is so special.

> Francis Gilbert (The Guardian) on why he will still be teaching this poem to his English class.