Literacy news
Sir Andrew Motion calls for poetry teaching to be broadened
8 Jan 2010
In a speech to the North of England Education Conference in York yesterday Sir Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate, said teaching Eminem rap songs and football chants in English lessons can limit children’s imaginations and their understanding of poetry.
Sir Andrew said “It’s very tempting, and especially with students who are already frightened or suspicious and disliking of poetry, to coax them towards it by offering something that appears to speak directly to their experience." But he added: “Each individual kind of poetry is like a doorway into the enormous palace of poetry itself. If we give our students only one kind of poetry to read, a kind they immediately recognise, it would be like taking someone to a palace, parking them at the door and telling them to go no farther.”
Read the Times online article here: www.timesonline.co.uk/
Read the article from the Independent here: www.independent.co.uk/news/education/
Read the Mail article here: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241469
