Michael Gove bans american classics.

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Of Mice and Men, the John Steinbeck novella, is one of a number of American classics that have been axed from new English literature GCSEs after the education secretary insisted students must study British works.

Michael Gove’s intervention means three-quarters of the books on the government directed GCSEs, which will be unveiled this week, are by British authors and most are pre-20th century.

OCR, one of Britain’s biggest exam boards, said: "Of Mice and Men, which Michael Gove really dislikes, will not be included. It was studied by 90% of teenagers taking English literature GCSE in the past.

"Michael Gove said that was a really disappointing statistic."

The exam board added: "In the new syllabus 70-80% of the books are from the English canon."



However, university professors warned the measures may put off teenagers from studying English literature.
Bethan Marshall, senior lecturer in English at King's College, London, and chairwoman of the National Association for the Teaching of English, told the Sunday Times: "It's a syllabus out of the 1940s and rumour has it Michael Gove, who read literature, designed it himself. Schools will be incredibly depressed when they see it.
"Kids will be put off doing A-level literature by this. Many teenagers will think that being made to read Dickens aged 16 is just tedious. This will just grind children down."
Exam boards were made to follow strict guidelines from the Department for Education when drawing up the new literature GCSE.
Teenagers will face exams at the end of two year and will not be able to undertake coursework.
From 2015, teenagers taking the OCR English literature exam will have to study a pre-20th-century novel by a British author, poetry by the Romantics, and a Shakespeare play.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10855068/American-classics-axed-from-GSCE-syllabus-on-Goves-instruction.html

Of Mice and Men is a terrible book I hated it so much, but banning it on the basis that it's American is just ridiculous.

And yes English Literature is not varied enough, no-one is ever made to read any 'modern books' and no wonder kids get sick and tired of the subject. Get ready for everyone being forced to read books by the Brontë sisters yesssssssss.

Michael Gove is so clueless he better be booted out next year.

Saw this on fb earlier and it's ridiculous from premise to execution. There are some fantastic British authors obviously but that doesn't mean you should discount the works of American writers and their impact on literature, and I quite agree that forcing teens to read Dickens is tedious - it's not that he's a terrible author but if you want kids to enjoy literature and mature with it then you have to give them something they can relate to. Romantic poetry will probably continue to be war poems with a bit of Wordsworth and Coleridge thrown in, Shakespeare is hilarious but not easy for everyone to get into, and so they're taking away the one aspect of GCSE English that the students can really make their own for no apparent reason. Modern literature is immensely important

they should get rid of an inspector calls that was a load of ****

an inspector calls was great back off

Michael Gove makes me physically angry. This is the exact reason I'm almost definitely not going to take up my PGCE place, because it's ridiculous to banish all these books which have MADE british literature what it is, just because they're not British writers.

I did an entire module on BRITISH literature at University and not a single author was British-born and bred, they all either emigrated or immigrated (they are different right, I mean came in and out).

The best of British lit is majorly influenced by other writers, of all backgrounds and it's absolutely ridiculous to blinker the next generation into this BRITAIN IS GOOD BRITAIN IS EVERYTHING dogma that seems to be going around in politics at the moment.

lol I hated inspector calls too.
enjoyed of mice and men though. I hate how these sort of stories always imply that standards are being dumbed down. They don't even read Dickens anymore, what a scandal, when it still is on the syllabus.

Of mice and men was crap, so I'm not too fussed.

Don't even know what inspector calls is, we did Of mice and men and Lord of the flies.

Here's hoping Wuthering heights gets a place.

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Originally Posted by lawrawrrr

Michael Gove makes me physically angry. This is the exact reason I'm almost definitely not going to take up my PGCE place, because it's ridiculous to banish all these books which have MADE british literature what it is, just because they're not British writers.

I did an entire module on BRITISH literature at University and not a single author was British-born and bred, they all either emigrated or immigrated (they are different right, I mean came in and out).

The best of British lit is majorly influenced by other writers, of all backgrounds and it's absolutely ridiculous to blinker the next generation into this BRITAIN IS GOOD BRITAIN IS EVERYTHING dogma that seems to be going around in politics at the moment.

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Children should be taught that their nation is great and they should be taught it's achievements and also it's downfalls. One thing that angers me for example is how many British children are not taught about the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the Acts of Union: all founding pillars of English liberty and how our country was formed and came about. There is room for other stuff of course, but British history and achievements should come first.

Gove is putting an end to the self-hatred dogma of our own country and its culture/history it appears, and well done to him.

Let's be honest Dickens writes really boring stories the only good thing to happen because of him is Muppet Christmas Carol

To kill a mockingbird is an amazing book. prat!!

But who will tend the rabbits?

Of Mice and Men was one of the few books I didn't mind when doing English Literature! Hated Lord of the Flies :/.

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Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

Children should be taught that their nation is great and they should be taught it's achievements and also it's downfalls. One thing that angers me for example is how many British children are not taught about the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the Acts of Union: all founding pillars of English liberty and how our country was formed and came about. There is room for other stuff of course, but British history and achievements should come first.

Gove is putting an end to the self-hatred dogma of our own country and its culture/history it appears, and well done to him.

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Wait so you're all for government interference in schools when it comes to learning about our 'great' nation? This isn't North Korea.

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Originally Posted by Ardemax

Wait so you're all for government interference in schools when it comes to learning about our 'great' nation? This isn't North Korea.

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If we have state education then ultimately that is the remit of the state what is taught in those schools.

I'd rather the government mandate that our own history be taught mainly, rather than pushing our own history to the side. As for the comparison with North Korea, if you'd read what I said I stated that I would also have our downfalls/shortcomings taught, ie General Dyer in the Raj.

School is not a factory for creating Brits, it's for educating. Keep the Best of British crap to the history classroom, literature is something that should transcend that. hitler anyone?

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Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

If we have state education then ultimately that is the remit of the state what is taught in those schools.

I'd rather the government mandate that our own history be taught mainly, rather than pushing our own history to the side. As for the comparison with North Korea, if you'd read what I said I stated that I would also have our downfalls/shortcomings taught, ie General Dyer in the Raj.

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But surely having a purely British agenda in schools would be a terrible thing?

Banning books that have enormous educational value because they don't have British authors is ridiculous. Fair enough teaching British history but don't think it should be limited to that. I hated Irish history but had to endure that at gcse, as and alevel. Would have loved an American history module! Plus how much is it going to cost to get all new resources to schools.

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Originally Posted by Intersocial

Of Mice and Men is a terrible book I hated it so much, but banning it on the basis that it's American is just ridiculous.

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This completely. That just sucks and the book was awful bye.

tbh.............................. of mice and men is too easy anyway and there needs to be more challenging material

Nothing wrong with teaching literature from any country as long as it is good.