Hands Off Poetry campaign
Dear poet,
We're contacting you as a subscriber to our 'general news' mailing list. Although this isn't news of the Poetry Business, we consider this an important issue and hope you don't mind us contacting you about it.
You might be aware the AQA have removed Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'Education for Leisure' from the GCSE curriculum following three complaints -- two of which were that it 'glorified knife crime' (the third was that it features the murder of a goldfish).
Michele Ledda, an English teacher, has started a petition to have the poem reinstated and we hope you will consider signing it.
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.
You can sign the petition here here.
Best wishes
from all at The Poetry Business
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 (from Standing Female Nude; Anvil Press, 1985)
The Poetry Business receives financial assistance from Arts Council England.
