So Michael Gove has (more-or-less) axed non-British literature from the GCSE syllabus. I'm passed the anger stage of G.R.I.E.F. (Gove Ridiculous Idea in Education Fuckery). I've vented my futile outrage on Twitter and in conversation, and now I'm left with a feeling of guttural remorse and disenchantment. My despair is two-fold; not only is the innate inclusivity of literature being destabilised, but teachers are being deprived an avenue by which they can enthuse and motivate.
English Literature is just magnificent. A concurrent embellishment and critique of our entire socio-historical canon, it enthrals, it inspires, it teaches. Our cultural and pathological formation can be traced through the history of English Literature, and it is wonderful. But it is, by its very nature, limiting. Its assertion as a catalogue of ubiquitous values and narratives will be always be fundamentally incorrect as it is, not to its fault, unequivocally British. American literature conveys an entirely different perspective of society and humanity. It is, often, unconsciously driven by patriotism, or rural pastoralism, or existentialism, or post-colonialism; all these and more are often aspects of ourselves untapped, or represented completely separately, by our own literature. This is not confined to the English language. What about the Magic-Realism of the Americas? The Latin and Greek Epic Poetry? The Russian Romanticists and Naturalists? These are literatures culturally idiosyncratic but equally pertinent to the human condition. This reform deprives children not only of the chance to expound their imagination through the unfamiliar and progress their appreciation of different cultural discourses, but the opportunity to grow as people. The two examples of axed texts the media mention are Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. One reaction to adolescence is a deep sense of insecurity and an ambivalent identity, which is often projected onto others through a series of predetermining, overarching judgements. Both To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men are about accepting each other as we really are, pushing past our judgements and seeing our value; and more significantly, the dangers of ignoring these sentiments. Not only are these books important, they're important for those ages; 14-15, when you're monopolised by the turmoil of adolescence. Both these works, and many like them (The Catcher in the Rye, Robert Frost's poetry etc), I genuinely consider instrumental in my emotional and social maturity. They are terrifically written, but they also preach compassion, empathy, understanding, equality; values integral for our natural growth.
Secondly, the very purpose of education, particularly secondary education, is to inform and elucidate. Sure, in a neo-liberal society it's also to get good grades, a good degree, and a good job, but that's minute compared to our moral development. What is the point of English classes, as well as History, Geography, Physics, Maths, if it isn't to help us, and help others? Every lesson we've had contained the purpose of furthering our knowledge of ourselves and our external world. History is learning from the mistakes of the past. Human Geography is learning the system of social interactions which function our every relationship. Chemistry is learning the physical intricacies of our world and how we can utilise these to improve ourselves. Now imagine History teachers were informed they could no longer approach the Holocaust. Or Human Geography teachers weren't allowed to discuss the slums in Mumbai and Mexico City. Or Chemistry teachers were told they couldn't relate the details of cancer research in Philadelphia. All because they hadn't much relevance to Britishness. It's the same English teachers being told they can only do British texts. It is needlessly authoritarian, tragically preventive, and dangerously, bizarrely ignorant.
This will invariably come across as lecturous and self-aggrandising, but hopefully I translate the importance of unrestricted intellectual freedoms when exploring literature and its implications, and how such pathetic legislation undermines the essential point of education.
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