'GOVE TO GO' says over 100,000

 

The mere mention of Michael Gove’s name causes grovels and groans across the country not only from teachers and professors but parents and school governors too. Last year the award winning author Graham Joyce launched a petition calling on David Cameron to remove Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, from office. Since then Gove has been the mastermind behind many badly informed legislations, especially the most recent and arguably the most controversial eradicating of many classic works of literature from the GCSE English Literature syllabus.

 

 

Over 100,000 people have signed Joyce’s petition following the news that Gove plans to remove authors such as Harper Lee and John Steinbeck from the GCSE English Literature syllabus. This number alone shows how well-loved and enjoyable their works of literature are and doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface of their importance. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men can be both simple and of the greatest intensity making it accessible to a wide range, if not all students and addresses issues such as sexism, feminism and cultural differences that are relevant in today’s society. Young people would benefit from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to a similar extent as it references many of the same topics and teaches of tolerance and having the courage of your convictions.

I personally believe that it would be a huge loss to the GCSE syllabus if these classic works of literature are removed as I largely enjoyed studying works of both authors during my English Literature qualification. I feel that I would’ve passed over these important books if they were not given to us at school, even having a mother as devoted to reading as I have, I feel I wouldn’t have come across these works and would’ve largely missed out on their teachings.

If you feel you want to sign Graham Joyce’s petition I’ve left a link to the website below:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/remove-michael-gove-from-office

 

 

 

 

 

tale of a hopelessly bored teenage girl

My mum is a regular reader of the times newspaper and therefore the times magazine always gets handed to me on saturday evenings after she’s flicked through it between her daily mothering escapades. As a teenage girl who’s grown up in the same small village backing on to a small farm backing onto Heathrow Airport her whole life, it’s fair to say I’m interested in what else is out there and of what I know of the world there’s a lot on my ‘to improve’ list. I would say I’m curious and opinionated and therefore devour any kind of writing I can: I’ve read all the books on my shelf front to back at least twice and I’m always scavenging for more to read. I’m also a strong feminist, and I like to think I’m as much of an activist as a fifteen year old girl can be (regularly calling out my peers for being sexist or degrading and growing my armpit hair ‘because I f***ing can and that’s awesome!’) . So imagine my delight in picking up the times magazine and seeing one of my main feminist idols Caitlin Moran with bleached hair and red lips standing in a familiar ‘I don’t give a f***’ pose.  I wouldn’t be lying if I said I did a double take. Can it be? Caitlin-turned-Courtney? Christmas had come in June for this teenager!

I grab the magazine and bound up stairs clutching it tightly to my chest and throw myself down on my bed. I take in the cover and just admire the art that is Caitlin-turned-Courtney’s eyeliner. My life goals are to achieve such eyeliner. Glancing at the two articles of hers and a picture I have of Caitlin on my wall next to my bed I hastily flick through the first pages of the times magazine, past something about being too old to wear white (what?) and a man I vagely recognise lounging on a hideous sofa before I’m struck breathless again. Slash? This really is Christmas! I know, what does a 15 year old girl in 2014 know about Slash, guitar God? Well my mother raised me what an 80s girl would term as ‘properly’, so me and my brothers are devoted Guns n Roses fans. My eyes devour the images of Caitlin Moran in various costumes as I sit cross-legged in my bedroom that’s decorated with pink carpets (I’ll never forgive 6 year old me for that decision) and purple walls expertly covered in The Rolling Stones posters, cinema tickets, articles and polarioids, wearing my hockey trackies, a vest top with a picture of Johnny Depp in 1989 on it, my hair in two French plaits and a half eaten apple in my hand.

And then the page is turned.

And I read and read and read, soaking up every single word written from Moran’s hand; learning of her heroes, her life and how she came to be. As I read her final sentence ‘culture is the mothers voice you chose’ my mind is racing at a million miles per hour but is stationary at the same time.  I was revolutionised. It all made sense and fell into place in my head. Fair to say my life has been changed forever and I sure as hell am going to start living like it.

 

What a tale, eh? A hopelessly bored teenage girl radically moved by a magazine article with next to no significance in the greater scheme of things. But its more than that to this hopelessly bored teenage girl, it’s clarity and it’s meaning and it’s a promise. Thank you Caitlin you’ve made sure that this is not the last the world will hear from this teenage girl.

would strongly recommend everyone pick up and read this article - truly revolutionary.