Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Career Doctor, Guardian, 05.07.05
Question:
Our head wants pupils to drop English literature at GCSE in favour of media studies. As head of the English department, I am very concerned. What can I do?
As an English graduate I am obviously biased, but I do not even begin to understand the comparison. Given that the Head Teacher wants to substitute English with Media Studies, there must be some sort of comparison taking place. These days most English graduates will go on to work in 'the media'; obvious choice: journalism, as obvious, less glamourous: arts management - or will want to, at least - and most end up in administration. So the line of thinking could be that since these people inevitable end up in the industry anyway, or at least will want to, we may as well give them the proper background.
Or could it be, as the Career Doctor ponders, that:
...your head is encouraging pupils to do media studies because it is a great deal easier to blag a GSCE that way. [...] For any school keen to boost its league table rankings, the atractions of media studies are obvious...
What about English as a subject, though? As well as equipping students to analyse the world around them and read other people and situations (which surely must be a benefit), the sheer joy of reading is incomparable to getting paid £40,000 p/a. I'm not saying it's better, it's just incomparable. While I (and the Career Doctor) have nothing against Media Studies at all, or getting a good job, or getting a lousy job in the media, I feel desperately saddened by the idea of the possible demise of English at GSCE level. The people I know who read (actual books, not just the back of the cornflake box or the sports section of The Sun in the loo) have been reading all their lives, have been read to as children, have grown up in houses that contained books (not necessarily so-called high literature), have been encouraged to read by parents, teachers and friends.
Reading develops your imagination, makes you smarter, teaches you, comforts you, scares you, brings you in touch with your emotions, challenges you and makes you think. Surely that can only be good.
Yes, English Lit can be awfully hard and terribly boring, but perhaps a way of coping would be to look at the curriculum, look at the teachers and finally to realise that English is not for all but fantastic for some and at least at GSCE level it is worth it giving pupils this experience. Afterwards, they'll have all the time in the world to renounce English.
Question:
Our head wants pupils to drop English literature at GCSE in favour of media studies. As head of the English department, I am very concerned. What can I do?
As an English graduate I am obviously biased, but I do not even begin to understand the comparison. Given that the Head Teacher wants to substitute English with Media Studies, there must be some sort of comparison taking place. These days most English graduates will go on to work in 'the media'; obvious choice: journalism, as obvious, less glamourous: arts management - or will want to, at least - and most end up in administration. So the line of thinking could be that since these people inevitable end up in the industry anyway, or at least will want to, we may as well give them the proper background.
Or could it be, as the Career Doctor ponders, that:
...your head is encouraging pupils to do media studies because it is a great deal easier to blag a GSCE that way. [...] For any school keen to boost its league table rankings, the atractions of media studies are obvious...
What about English as a subject, though? As well as equipping students to analyse the world around them and read other people and situations (which surely must be a benefit), the sheer joy of reading is incomparable to getting paid £40,000 p/a. I'm not saying it's better, it's just incomparable. While I (and the Career Doctor) have nothing against Media Studies at all, or getting a good job, or getting a lousy job in the media, I feel desperately saddened by the idea of the possible demise of English at GSCE level. The people I know who read (actual books, not just the back of the cornflake box or the sports section of The Sun in the loo) have been reading all their lives, have been read to as children, have grown up in houses that contained books (not necessarily so-called high literature), have been encouraged to read by parents, teachers and friends.
Reading develops your imagination, makes you smarter, teaches you, comforts you, scares you, brings you in touch with your emotions, challenges you and makes you think. Surely that can only be good.
Yes, English Lit can be awfully hard and terribly boring, but perhaps a way of coping would be to look at the curriculum, look at the teachers and finally to realise that English is not for all but fantastic for some and at least at GSCE level it is worth it giving pupils this experience. Afterwards, they'll have all the time in the world to renounce English.
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