Jeffrey Boakye is right to think that the stories we tell our children are the moulds that cast their future values (Why are books on the English school curriculum still in the grip of straight, white men?, 7 June). Recent research from the End Sexism in Schools Campaign has also established that children in the UK are still living off a worryingly limited diet of white, male authors and white, male protagonists.
Our research confirms that the novels Boakye mentions are in the top five most taught in years 7 to 9. But boys need to be taught to listen to and respect female voices as authoritative, and to be empathic to the viewpoints of women and girls. This is essential in tackling one of the root causes of male violence against women and girls. And girls need to be taught that our expectations of them are not tied to life-denying gender stereotypes.
Parents – challenge your schools to change. Teachers – you have the agency to make these changes. It is our duty as their parents, educators and carers to teach children more books by women, and more books with female protagonists – and if this means leaving out some of the so-called classics, so be it!
Debbie Brazil and Rachel Fenn
End Sexism in Schools Campaign
• Jeffrey Boakye stresses the need for a broader choice of literature in the school curriculum in our diverse culture. I have to say that when I taught, we did study a broad range. And even if “colonial shackles” are present, an enlightened teacher will debate these with pupils without necessarily damning the book.
Yes, some books were regular old chestnuts on the literature syllabus, but they have much more relevance to today than Boakye allows. Of Mice and Men illuminates what it is to have a learning disability; Animal Farm tackles gang culture; and An Inspector Calls criticises a white, class-ridden society.
Most teachers of literature do study, with their A-level and GCSE pupils, books such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, which portray the lives of African Americans, Afghans and Indians, yet are not chosen just because of that. They inspire because of the art of fiction involved, which makes any book expand beyond itself to become universal, teaching children from diverse cultures about themselves and worlds both familiar and unfamiliar.
Skin colour or the sexual identity of the author should not matter. It is the work that should stand on its own to challenge and inspire.
Patricia McCarthy
Editor, Agenda
• The answer to Jeffrey Boakye’s question “what should be on the [English] curriculum?” is simpler than is often thought. Nothing should be specified by exam boards or governments. Whole classes, year groups or national cohorts need not study the same few texts.
English literature could be taught by allowing teachers and students to decide together, exploring relevant and important themes, including those Boakye identifies. The techniques of reading, analysing and understanding can be taught with examples, but all students need not answer the same questions on the same books, in class or in exams. The current system is more convenient for teachers and markers, but it’s also deeply repetitive. Let the kids choose their own texts: it’ll be less boring and we might just learn something.
Gavin Bailey
Keele, Staffordshire
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