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Schools refuse gifts of 'boring' classics
Last updated at 23:37pm on 20.03.07
Oliver Twist: Among the classics which have been rejected by schools
Dozens of schools have rejected gifts of free classic books because today's pupils find them too 'difficult' to read, it has emerged.
Around 50 schools have refused to stock literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens after admitting that youngsters also find them boring.
The worrying figures were released by the Millennium Library Trust, which donates sets of up to 300 books to schools across the country.
David Campbell, who runs the Trust, also revealed that a further 50 schools had sent back the gifts as they were on the verge of closing down and another 40 said they had no library to store the books.
Critics said the figures are a damning indictment of the quality of state education in the UK and come at a time when fewer than half of all teenagers are achieving basic standards in GCSE English.
A total of 4,150 schools have received large packages of books under the scheme, which aims to encourage youngsters to read great literary works.
The titles include Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, George Eliot's Middlemarch, Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and JR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
But Helena Read, librarian at Cotelands school in Linconshire, said: "The bottom line is getting the pupils to read, whether it's a newspaper, comic novel or magazine.
"In an ideal world, I would love it if the pupils came into my library and requested some of the classics, but the fact of the matter is that pupils today are living in a different world."
She added that pupils are more interested in Japanese comics rather than literary greats. "Kids love action and adventure," Miss Read said. "They want books that excite them and are current. They love fantasy.
"The books for nowadays are Manga, the Japanese comic books that you read from back to front."
The librarian went on to say that the classics were "unattractive". She said: "I think they are unappealing to youngsters and you've got to fit them into your school bag."
Another school, which rejected the free 'Everyman's Library' books, wrote: "The paper jackets are ugly and unattractive and the binding is dull and boring.
"What is needed is the familiar paperback format with attractive jacket and abridged versions."
Another school complained: "The books are so unattractive they are unlikely to tempt any pupil."
The figures came as a new CBI report revealed that many business leaders are complaining that school leavers are lacking in basic literacy, numeracy and other 'employability' skills.
Shadow Education Secretary David Willetts said: "These books are the birthright of every child in our country and schools should not be depriving them of the enjoyment of discovering them.
"These book were not considered too difficult. It is shocking that they are being described in this way and children who have been taught properly should have no problem enjoying them.
"It can only mean that standards of literary are much lower that the government claims."
Mr Campbell, who has raised £9million to pay for the books, told the Guardian yesterday: "It never occurred to me that anyone would turn this offer down.
"I didn't expect most school pupils to want to read Homer or Virgil, but I thought that there was more than a reasonable chance that quite a few could be coaxed to read (Gabriel Garcia) Marquez, Primo Levi, (Ernest) Hemingway, (Evelyn) Waugh or even Chinua Achebe."
He added: "Where I have less sympathy is where librarians or teachers have clearly thrown in the towel and don't believe anyone in the school can be inspired to read beyond the bare syllabus minimum.
"I can't believe that one would have had a refusal of such a gift in any other country in Europe, certainly not in Eastern Europe. These books are the DNA of our civilisation. They should be available to everyone as they grow up."
However, not all the responses were negative. One school librarian wrote: "We are a low-achieving high school, but we're improving. I would never have been able to find the money in my meagre budget to buy copies of these classics."
Another added: "We are hugely privileged to have a collection like this...these wonderful books."
Mr Campbell said: "I believe strongly that if just one pupil in each school each year for the next 50 years has his or her life changed by new worlds being opened from reading outside the syllabus, this project will have been worthwhile."
Reader views (15)
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I was just like David. No demands were placed on me in school and I subsequently dropped out after the 8th grade. However, I was always a voracious reader. I learned more in the 3 years after I left school than I did in the 9 I spent there. As I got to my early 20s, I began reading literature pretty widely. I also began reading classic works of history and philosophy. When I turned 30 I began reading the Greek and Roman classics and even began the slow process of learning Ancient Greek in my spare time. Now, I'm 32 and have finished my first year of college on my way to a major in American History and a minor in classics. These books have enriched my life beyond measure and have given me the tools to become a better person. My unending curiosity and quest for knowledge has never ceased despite not being fed in the least in my elementary and high school years. It is this appreciation for the classics and the quenchless thirst for knowledge that I now hope to pass on to my sons above all else.
- Michael, NYC
I grew up in India in the 60s, the convent school I attended introduced us to different classics every year. It was timetabled as Non detailed English, alongside with a Shakespeare play each year. It turned out to be the most delightful part of our school curriculum, books like: The Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, Kipling's Jungle Book, Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Austin's Jane Eyre. I work now in a school library in Manchester. The Millennium library collections which are gifted to schools are immensely valuable to students and staff in the doors they open to different worlds, cultures, civilisations, contries, both imagined and real. These classics are priceless in the English speaking world and are read and re-read till the pages fall apart. It is a shame that some people are unable to recognise the true value and worth of such books.
I am very grateful to the Millennium Library and David Campbell for having the vision to make these books available to State Schools.
- Renuka Manuel, Manchester
This perhaps isn't so much a commentary on students as it is on teachers. What has happened so that teachers have become cultural illiterates and find little of merit in classical literature? What resources are there to kindle the fires in the hearts of teachers so that they in turn enlighten the minds of the next generation?
This is also a commentary on the nature of "excitement" in our cultures. Too often these days, curriculum seeks to excite students or to make learning fun. At the school where I serve as headmaster, we do not strive to make education fun, but rather, fascinating. Our goal is not to excite students (which can better be accomplished with electronic or chemical stimuli), but to open their eyes to a broad horizon, a magnificent vista of what it means to be human.
One anecdote I've heard is that when a mother heard a child complain that he was bored, she replied, "You're not bored; you're boring."
- Joel, Brookfield, IL
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