What's going on?! AQA have removed this 'monologue' from their syllabus...could it be the content and a rather simplistic reading of it, off whack associations with knife crime seem to merge into the ridiculous. Fab ironic piece of writing...what do you think about such censorship?

Boo hoo, no one gives a hoot about the removal of Duffy's Education for Leisure, reactionism, the 'purity' of the AQA syllabus and freedom of expression more generally then!
Could it be that Duffy is too big a fish for anyone to give a toss about or am I missing something?!

What about our kids rights to read comparatively relatable (not in any psychotic sense!) accessible and thought provoking stuff..does anyone care?

It would be great if the education system did have some decent poetry in it, instead of all this dull dead stuff by Carol Anne Duffy and Simon Armitage...

Whatever one thinks of the literary merits of Education for Leisure, AQA’s ban sets a dangerous precedent. Once the very people who should be guaranteeing that our children study the best possible literature start using poems instrumentally, either selecting them because the carry the ‘correct’ political message or banning them because they deal with the contentious issue of the moment, the door is open to all sorts of external demands. And if we don’t do something against this trend it won’t stop here. It sounds very unlikely now, but sooner or later they will ban a Shakespeare play.
That’s why I have started a petition against this ridiculous ban:
http://www.petitiononline.com/hdsoffp/petition.html

For more information, see my post on the Manifesto Club website
http://www.manifestoclub.com/node/387

Michele Ledda
Teacher of English

The ban is sadly both inevitable and eminently sensible given the number of impressionable young people. For instance, I stabbed someone that I wouldn't have done otherwise after reading it. Mind you, I also rode a cock horse to Banbury Cross, raped Lucrece, blew 'round granny, and then I read cock up your beaver by Robert Burns. Safest just to ban the whole kaboodle if you as me.

We think this is utterly outrageous and represents the intellectual decay of our political correctness-obsessed nation. Censorship gone mad, I tell you. Remember the name Andrew Shelton. When he is in power, he will rectify this sad state of affairs!

From 10M1