Teach Secondary 13.5

CANON FODDER We might want young people to ‘appreciate’ literature, reasons Ian Mitchell – but how can we do that without common agreement on what good literature actually looks like? T here’s a good chance that by the time you read this, the people of Britain will have seen the outcome of the general election. If the polls at the time of writing are to be believed, we will witness the formation of a new Labour government – though of course, the polls have been wrong before. Whether a new government takes charge of the education system or not, teachers can certainly expect some form of political intervention to continue. After all, we’ve repeatedly seen successive governments seek to change – some might prefer ‘meddle with’ – the practices and values of Britain’s schools going back decades. Within the span of just 15 years, for example, the UK government has devised an educational strategy for preventing terrorism, found time to dramatically redesign GCSE and A level courses and relaunched a PSHE programmed in which teachers, amongst other things, are expected to define for their students the nature of healthy sexual relationships. A redefined literary canon Yet whenever policymakers talk about education, reading barely seems to warrant a mention. We do have the English National Curriculum, of course, which determines that children at KS4 should be taught ‘an appreciation and love of reading’. I would argue, however, that while the English National Curriculum does successfully encourage the teaching of a detailed A to Z glossary of language terms that teachers should be teaching (from ‘Active Voices’ down to ‘Word Families’), what it doesn’t include is a prescribed list of books across the Key Stages for children’s private reading. The acquisition of competence in reading and writing is something that schools rightly prioritise for their students, but I propose that we do something more specific – introduce a redefined literary canon that all students are encouraged to read, with an emphasis placed on the appreciation of whole narratives, both fictional and non-fictional. There is presently no prescribed national reading list for children – at least, not one which includes named texts that all children should read before they complete formal schooling, irrespective of any exam specification. Inexplicably, the English National Curriculum presently fails to explicitly name those works that children should experience. Perhaps it’s therefore time to introduce a British Reading Programme – a definitive list of the most prized and valued national works of literature. Trending downward According to the National Literacy Trust, just 43% of 8- to 18-year-olds enjoy reading in their own time, with only 3 out of 10 of this group saying they read daily. One can reasonably assume the reasons or excuses given for this. Young people are anxious; they’re too busy studying; the existence of social media; a simple lack of hours in the day. It’s worth paying attention to a separate YouGov poll conducted in 2020, which found that just 7% of 18- to 24-year-olds reported reading daily, compared to 34% of over 55s. Whatever the reasons for this dramatic decline in reading for the sake of reading, it’s a trend that we’re unlikely to see reversed through organic means alone. Of course, identifying an agreed reading list is far easier said than done (though arguably no more difficult than defining what a ‘healthy sexual relationship’ looks like). I’ve personally sat in onmany unproductive English department meetings over the last 25 years, attempting to decide what a school reading list ought to look like. Someone can always be relied upon to storm out of those meetings if Joyce’s Ulysses doesn’t make the final draft. It does seem as though Joyce’s most impenetrable work attracts the more volatile English teachers. To complicate matters further, amid the so-called ongoing ‘culture wars’, the existing literary canon has been accused of being ‘too white’ or ‘too male’. What’s surprising about this is that heated culture war debates haven’t led to a resurgence in reading, since by effectively censoring literature, certain critics are surely drawing attention to the importance “Inexplicably,theEnglishNational Curriculumpresentlyfailsto explicitlynamethoseworksthat childrenshouldexperience” 12 teachwire.net/secondary