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Literacy lessons have been fatal for English, says teachers' leader
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent9 Apr 2009
THE drive to improve literacy in schools has killed the subject of English and left a generation of children unable to speak properly, a teachers' leader warned today.
Pupils no longer read whole books or write in class for pleasure, but instead analyse "extracts" for tests, according to Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. She said children had lost the chance to learn how to talk and listen to others under the Government's literacy strategy.
There is growing concern among authors over the erosion of literature studies and employers have complained about school-leavers' weak communication skills.
Pupils are no longer required to study whole Shakespeare plays in detail but can rely on revising sections from extracted scenes. Inspectors have warned that poetry is a dying subject in too many schools, while Michael Rosen, the Children's Laureate, has criticised the Government for failing to promote reading for fun.
Speaking at ATL's annual conference in Liverpool, Dr Bousted, a former English teacher, criticised the Government's literacy strategy, begun while David Blunkett was education secretary, for failing to include verbal communication skills.
"My subject, English, is no more. It has been replaced by a newcomer - literacy," she said. "Literacy as a subject is based on the naming of parts. Children rarely read whole books. They read parts of books - extracts. These extracts are mined for adjectives and adverbs, and active verbs and nouns.
"Where has the concept of pleasure gone? Where has the personal response to a book or a poem disappeared to? Where is the experience of children choosing what it is they want to write about?"
Despite opposition from teachers' unions, ministers have overhauled the teaching of reading in primary schools, bringing in the use of "phonics", in which children learn to blend individual letter sounds to form whole words.
Reader views (29)
Are you surprised by this, poor kids are pushed and pushed to learn things and not explore things like when I was young in the 70's and 80's. Of course now if you fantazize or dream about having a dream your punsihed. Poor kids.
- Edward, Edinburhg, Scotland, 14/04/2009 22:02
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In the game of bowling, the balls used are known as woods. the same word is used to describe a forest of trees. Its a stupid language.
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 14/04/2009 16:48
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Labour have been fatal for the English.
Balls by name ...
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 14/04/2009 09:07
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I struggle with the deeper reason of immigration from 3rd world countries, I must be missing something. I wish someone would give me a clear explanation that doesn't reek with fear, which is what I think it is. It's good to be Christian, but cmon, it's slow suicide..
- Michael, New york, 14/04/2009 01:37
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I also went to school before it became fashionable to make sure no one is upset by being failed. I found the "old fashioned" system of the 11 plus and having five or six classes for the same year according to ability was a much better way to go and then kids learnt according to their mental ability not the school boards idea of the way it should be. I now live in Canada and it is just as crazy here, pass the kids, who cares whether they can think independently, spell or write.
- Chris Darling, Hubbards, Nova Scotia, Canada, 13/04/2009 15:19
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It's nice to see some erudite correspondents airing their views. My problem is that I have heard many teachers speaking English here in this country and I'm afraid that until such times as they learn to speak properly then their students don't have a snowballs hope in hell. I loathed Shakespeare at school and suffered at least one of his masterpieces each year for many years and until I actually had the pleasure of seeing his works performed on stage they remained merely a big turn off. The big difference is that we had to absorb each book because at the end of each term there were exams with finals at the end of the year, fail that final and you had the pleasure of repeating that year. Keep examinations and keep high standards. Pass one, pass all is just not an option.
- Dennis, Taplow. U.K., 13/04/2009 12:17
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Much the same here in the US of A. I have been substitute teaching in an atmosphere where the educational gimmick du jour, repeated many times over 30+ years, has resulted in 14 year olds who can barely read and write. Forget critical thinking, many can barely express any cogent thought. Yet the howls for more funding for education--"we just don't spend enough"--continue unabated by any reflection on the miserable, and ever-declining, results.
What is needed is a thorough overhaul and a return to the standards of the past, but no one is about to propose that career-suicidal move.
- John J. Kavanagh, Mercer Island, WA, USA, 12/04/2009 02:49
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I was at school during the forties & fifties and I learnt to read when I was five years old & in a very serious & disciplined manner. I don't recall having much in the way of teaching before starting school either. So - why is it that this subject was considered so important & absolutely essential in the olden days but is treated so casually now?!
- Dawn Bonham, Northampton, 10/04/2009 15:03
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Yes indeed. Education policy, modern teaching methods and dumbing down of exams are all downsizing our language. But also, how do you encourage a child to read for pleasure when he has his
X-Box, his PC and his mobile phone to occupy his time? Yet the teenagers all say " I have nothing to do in the evenings. "
Nao
- Naomi Sajeri, Manchester, 10/04/2009 13:24
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Years ago I went to school, in a building bomb torn shred and shattered,
Reading and writing was all very good; but it was the free school milk that mattered.
Teachers were often thin on the ground, but books in libraries were always around,
Reading made me constantly think, and my writing was always done in ink.
I left my dilapidated school one day, without any qualifications of merit,
This was just the start of my education; which I sought out like a ferret.
I carried on reading and learning all I could, from those that had the knowledge,
This is the best a working class kid could do, without ever going to college.
I am old today and often look back at the happy life I have had,
I learned very young to help myself, and for that I am more than glad.
I could have blamed everyone else around, for failing to reach my peek.
Yet as old as I am every day I learn, knowledge is there for all to seek.
Teachers and parents can only go so far, after that it is up to you,
To my children I give this advice I have learned; always remain true to you.
- Mickyinlondon, london, 10/04/2009 13:21
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I was in the last year to do 'O' Levels: for English Literature I had to learn 12 complete plays or books, and know all the relevant quotations (and in the case of Chaucer, the translations). You can see why, back in ye olden days, only really exceptional people got an 'A' grade. The UK has debased its exam system in order falsely to meet spurious targets set by Whitehall. It has done this simultaneously to opening up its borders to a work force from abroad which is freqently better qualified.
- Roz, Chamonix, France, 10/04/2009 12:57
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I taught reading for many years and my greatest pleasure was to teach the skills and then give the child a book to take home and read to their parents.
Today reading is considered " another subject" - If you can read you can have access to any are of life : practical or for pleasure.
Teachers are partly to blame for fighting their subject's corner and letting reading become less of a priority. How I loved those days when all the school would read for a moment - telephones cut and heads and secretaries would have their heads in a book too.
- Terry, Hennebont France, 10/04/2009 12:10
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Is there no part of our country that has not been ruined by this God-awful government!? Britain will never recover from the last 12 years.
- Chris, Brighton, England., 10/04/2009 11:25
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I was taught to read in school, but it was my parents who encouraged me to read for pleasure.
If a child reaches secondary school and still does not read whole books then that is as much the parents fault as the school system surely?
- Frances, London, 10/04/2009 09:49
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This is the same trend we've seen in the US with "No Child Left Behind." Testing becomes everything and learning becomes this annoying thing that no one bothers with anymore... Thus 'Shakespeare' is a bad word, and you can bet that a whole generation of Americans will come to know Jane Austen not by her real works but by zombie mash ups. I'm waiting for a real zombie film about the generation of illiterates spawned by the Bush administration.
- Elan Durham, usa, 10/04/2009 09:48
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They have been useful in getting children to read proper books, and express themselves in writing. It was necessary to focus on these aspects of communication.
- Dhanraj, basildon, 10/04/2009 09:05
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The modern world continues to degrade into rabble.
But they, lets build new fancy buildings and all get in shape by 2012!
- Trunk, US, 10/04/2009 03:22
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Does Michael Rosen not know that thousands and thousands of children read
"Harry Potter" for fun?
And who knows how the Dept. of Education manages to employ people who seem so lacking in understanding that it is important for children to understand how to use their native language. First they abolished grammar, then they twigged some time afterwards maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Now there's phonics.
Educationalists should look to the way English was taught successfully in the past
instead of messing around so futilously with the curriculum. What idiots!
ignorant
- Dee, london, 10/04/2009 00:04
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Well Im like , er upset by this , like I hope this is bad. Well I was like so surprised.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 09/04/2009 23:49
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You don't have to be a student of the English language to realise that a good percentage od people in the UK have little grasp of how to use the language in a creative and beautiful way. The English language hasn't yet been reduced to grunts in England but it is well on its way. The cause is simple, poor teaching standards, lack of discipline in the class room and a hopelessly intellectualy challenged government, who actually don't care about such things.
I converse with Europeans frequently and their level of English is often far superior to that of native English speakers. You've all heard the now unfashionable phrase 'back to basics' well now it surely needs to come into fashion wih a vengeance.
- William Ear, Waltham Cross, 09/04/2009 20:39
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'Despite opposition from teachers unions'?
What dross!
What opposition?
They've been wholly complicit with allowing this corruption of English 'teaching', and the rest, for 12 long rotten years!
And now, with the Conservative cavalry on the horizon, these duplicitous unions suddenly disingenuously pretend that they were against Blunkett's disasterously perverse policies from the outset.
Thank God that my kids just about survived secondary education unscathed, though even they both suffered for 5 years, despite the billions squandered on half baked
initiatives, at a school whose decrepit shower
'facilities' were unusable, and still are two years on!
- Dave, Cumbria, 09/04/2009 20:34
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Will there ever be an end to the double-negative? Still as common among the adult population as schoolchildren - in spite of the so-called advances in education and the money spent on it.
The print and broadcast media are available to all. But how many take the trouble, with the help of educationists, to study in depth what is written and spoken?
And what does the school librarian do with his or her time?
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Mildenhall, Suffolk., 09/04/2009 20:26
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In the US, being a teacher is rarely a calling. Rather it is the profession of last resort, chosen by those who have failed at earlier endeavours. What passes now for acceptable instruction is simply to read, or copy on the chalk board, complete sections of the Teachers' Guide. There is little classroom presence of effort to actually have pupils discover truths, whether great or small. And the standards by which success is measured have been prostituted to the degree that it is nearly impossible to have a studennt awarded a failing grade: "Incomplete" appears to be the substitute of choice.
- Western Gael, Colorado Springs, US, 09/04/2009 19:14
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One of the biggest culprits left unmentioned in the article is the 'txt spk' generation. I have seen endless examples of letters and forum posts online that drop into this abbreviated form of 'English' as though it was standard English. No punctuation. No apparent understanding of proper nouns etc. Assumption that all other 'English' speakers can understand their version. No understanding at all that all they demonstrate is their own lack of ability to communicate to the world at large rather than just within their own circle.
- Rogan, Irving, 09/04/2009 18:21
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Ignorance of the English language is everywhere now. Yesterday a comment was sent in by a Richard who complained that Gordon Brown was wasting our penny's. Penny's from Heaven.
- Knowall, london uk, 09/04/2009 17:33
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Those wot lead us. like balls, stumbel from one mess-up to anovver, innit?
- Judith C, London, UK, 09/04/2009 17:06
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Students can get away without reading even extracts, they just read what other people have written in revision books thus saving even more time and effort. Just wait until they put "reading books" on their c.v. and question them.Enjoy.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, England, 09/04/2009 16:29
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It's criminal. The people who instigated these changes should be jailed, never mind given whopping pensions.
- Marianne, SW France, 09/04/2009 16:07
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Um, er wat ! This is what I hear from youngsters when I come to Britain now. I am French but learnt to speak the Queens English and had to read through Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, Conrad, Dickens etc...oh for the youngsters these are not football players !
- Terry. B, Toulouse, France, 09/04/2009 16:03
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