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| Why I want to study To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men | Why I want to study To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| It is not old news to us that Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, seems to be trying to make our education just like his. His department recently decided to narrow down the books that we are going to be able to study for our GCSEs, removing American literature from the twentieth century syllabus. It seems that the classic works of Harper Lee and John Steinbeck are not up to the 'British standard' and Britain is not as multi-cultural as perhaps it seems. | It is not old news to us that Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, seems to be trying to make our education just like his. His department recently decided to narrow down the books that we are going to be able to study for our GCSEs, removing American literature from the twentieth century syllabus. It seems that the classic works of Harper Lee and John Steinbeck are not up to the 'British standard' and Britain is not as multi-cultural as perhaps it seems. |
| Two of the books being taken away from our classrooms are To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. One is a book about the Great Depression in the 1930s, a book that us teenagers would get because we have lived through a financial crisis and understand what depression means; so many are struggling to get part time work and watching friends and family suffer too. It also shows racial discrimination and sexism, and how they are wrong and should not roam free in our society. The other is a book of justice that cannot be defined by just a few mere words; it made me feel a better person just for reading it. Understanding that what had happened to Tom Robinson was not proper justice makes you realise how justice cannot always be served, and how intolerance is passed down from generation to generation. | Two of the books being taken away from our classrooms are To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. One is a book about the Great Depression in the 1930s, a book that us teenagers would get because we have lived through a financial crisis and understand what depression means; so many are struggling to get part time work and watching friends and family suffer too. It also shows racial discrimination and sexism, and how they are wrong and should not roam free in our society. The other is a book of justice that cannot be defined by just a few mere words; it made me feel a better person just for reading it. Understanding that what had happened to Tom Robinson was not proper justice makes you realise how justice cannot always be served, and how intolerance is passed down from generation to generation. |
| It looks like Michael Gove has no time for these extraordinary pieces of literature (he reportedly said he had a "particular dislike of Of Mice and Men"). No, Gove would rather be sitting at home telling us that we should be reading Middlemarch, which I do not doubt deserves notice, rather than reading Twilight! Is it not good enough that our generation is reading? Does Michael Gove have the right to tell US what to read? Think about that for a minute: does a man who went to school around 40 years ago have the right to tell us, who go to school now, what we should be reading? | It looks like Michael Gove has no time for these extraordinary pieces of literature (he reportedly said he had a "particular dislike of Of Mice and Men"). No, Gove would rather be sitting at home telling us that we should be reading Middlemarch, which I do not doubt deserves notice, rather than reading Twilight! Is it not good enough that our generation is reading? Does Michael Gove have the right to tell US what to read? Think about that for a minute: does a man who went to school around 40 years ago have the right to tell us, who go to school now, what we should be reading? |
| Has any one reading this ever been depressed? About 20% of teens have depression before they reach adulthood, and that's only those we have come forward and admitted it. If they take away American literature from our schools they will be taking away writers such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson and so many more. These authors are the ones we so often turn to: they have helped us out of so many situations where we have felt down and have needed another person to tell us they have been through it too. And even though Plath did not make it to the end, her astonishing poetry showed us that we are not alone and maybe if there was someone there to tell HER she was not alone than she would not have to suffer that fate. By taking away these books the government are making a generation of depressed kids more saddened, because they do not have the literature that tells them it's alright to be different, that equips them with the language to express how they feel, and you will struggle to find that anywhere else in our modern society. Of course we can find and read these books ourselves, but school is the place where teenagers who aren't already readers discover these things for the first time. | Has any one reading this ever been depressed? About 20% of teens have depression before they reach adulthood, and that's only those we have come forward and admitted it. If they take away American literature from our schools they will be taking away writers such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson and so many more. These authors are the ones we so often turn to: they have helped us out of so many situations where we have felt down and have needed another person to tell us they have been through it too. And even though Plath did not make it to the end, her astonishing poetry showed us that we are not alone and maybe if there was someone there to tell HER she was not alone than she would not have to suffer that fate. By taking away these books the government are making a generation of depressed kids more saddened, because they do not have the literature that tells them it's alright to be different, that equips them with the language to express how they feel, and you will struggle to find that anywhere else in our modern society. Of course we can find and read these books ourselves, but school is the place where teenagers who aren't already readers discover these things for the first time. |
| The question of why nineteenth century British writers books are not capturing our imaginations at the minute is a different one. A lot of people my age feel they are just not ahead of their time: works by writers such as Charles Dickens are narrow-minded, and though his novels are by far some of the best written and structured writings of any era, they lack liberal thought which we, as young people, value highly: we are not, for the most part, judgmental (or I'm not at any rate!). We'll also be left with Jane Austen, who I have read and loved, but must judge according to how her novels leave so many things out, how they forget or ignore what is going on around them. I feel as if Gove is trying to pull us back instead of forward by insisting on these books; he is trying to change the era we live in. | The question of why nineteenth century British writers books are not capturing our imaginations at the minute is a different one. A lot of people my age feel they are just not ahead of their time: works by writers such as Charles Dickens are narrow-minded, and though his novels are by far some of the best written and structured writings of any era, they lack liberal thought which we, as young people, value highly: we are not, for the most part, judgmental (or I'm not at any rate!). We'll also be left with Jane Austen, who I have read and loved, but must judge according to how her novels leave so many things out, how they forget or ignore what is going on around them. I feel as if Gove is trying to pull us back instead of forward by insisting on these books; he is trying to change the era we live in. |
| After saying these words about English literature, I must state that there is great literature in the English language. It was just yesterday that I stood for a little over two hours in the pouring rain watching actors perform Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare's Globe theatre, and I have found such brilliant joy whilst reading the works of the Bronte sisters. With all this said though we must ask the question, why is the government not choosing these books to read then? Because they are liberal, and talk of equality, which this government has shown they clearly do not care about with their disregard of To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. | After saying these words about English literature, I must state that there is great literature in the English language. It was just yesterday that I stood for a little over two hours in the pouring rain watching actors perform Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare's Globe theatre, and I have found such brilliant joy whilst reading the works of the Bronte sisters. With all this said though we must ask the question, why is the government not choosing these books to read then? Because they are liberal, and talk of equality, which this government has shown they clearly do not care about with their disregard of To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. |
| We as teens should have the right to a say in choosing what books we should read in our schools, and I for one am not going to sit and let this happen: are you? | We as teens should have the right to a say in choosing what books we should read in our schools, and I for one am not going to sit and let this happen: are you? |
| What do you think? Email us your thoughts at childrens.books@theguardian.com, get in touch on Facebook or tweet us @GdnChildrensBks and we'll post them below. | What do you think? Email us your thoughts at childrens.books@theguardian.com, get in touch on Facebook or tweet us @GdnChildrensBks and we'll post them below. |
| Your responses | |
| Megan, on emailApart from anything else, American authors have historically written the teen experience particularly well. |