I Know Why...Gove isn't going to like this!

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

Now isn’t that something for motivation? You’d think that the Secretary of Education would care about fuelling passion in the classroom, but not our dear Mr. Gove. I’d go a step forward to say that without a little help, Gove would have no idea who said the above quote. That’s because he probably didn’t have enthusiastic teachers to thrust a copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings into his hands for inspiration.

Gove would like to axe American Literature from the GCSE syllabus, but here’s just three reasons for the inclusion of Maya Angelou’s fantastic autobiography.

• Reason number one: Maya Angelou

A black female writer with a message. I’m not entirely sure how Gove likes his curriculum authors, but I’m fairly certain she’d be one of a kind on the syllabus, distracting attention from all the white, middle class males.

Yes, the first reason is just because Angelou herself was pretty amazing. I can honestly say that yesterday, when I logged onto Twitter to learn about her passing, I genuinely felt sad. Why’s that? Because the world has lost one of its most outstanding pioneers for civil rights.

This woman showed us that it is possible to give a middle finger to the terrors of life and keep going. What’s more is that she taught us the importance of keeping that middle finger up and going to the next level – it’s not enough to be living a better life than you were born into, you should make a real difference!

But of course, we all know that pre-19^th century love poetry is going to give teenagers the same kind of push, right? Right…

• Reason number two: Challenging themes

Angelou’s writing isn’t that hardest to understand, which is a really good thing because if we can’t get past the complexity of the sentence structure, how do we have a chance of exploring further the themes that have been included in the text? So whilst I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings doesn’t quite reach the surface complexity of Gove’s preferred texts, it is exactly the right level for developing readers.

Let’s just go through some of the themes:

Racism – is this an issue of today? You bet your backside it is. Just take a look at the European Parliament Election results for any evidence.

Sexism – we still need feminism. Angelou teaches girls how to become strong women, despite the injustices thrown at them.

Identity – when is this not going to be a contemporary issue? We’ve all got one, and 14-16 year olds are just starting to develop their own. Why not encourage them with Angelou’s words of wisdom?

Change – seriously, what isn’t changing when you’re an adolescent? Angelou shares her experience of change, both mentally and physically, throughout I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Sexuality – now now now. We’ve moved on from when sexuality was a sin, and now we need to encourage open expression. We’re at a point where children are taught the basics of sex education in school, but none of the emotions that come with it. Get it together, Gove!

Religion – another biggie, isn’t it? Or maybe we shouldn’t… obviously too controversial, it’s not like we want our young people to have an opinion, is it?

Appearance – yeah, I’ve been there. In a world where so much emphasis is put on appearance, why not show our children that it’s possible to succeed without being gifted with the face of an angel?

And to be honest, these are just my favourites and probably don’t even cover half the themes that could be discussed in the text. Young people need to be challenged by themes that they can relate to and apply to our society today.

• Reason number three: A compelling story – and it’s true.

How many autobiographies are there on the national curriculum? I don’t think there are many, but I’m pushing for creative nonfiction to be included alongside other literary forms. We need a wider range of literary forms on the curriculum rather than limiting children to novels and poetry. How about throwing in some flash fiction, short stories, autobiographies and experimental forms?

I’m sure we can foster a love of reading in children; we just need to find what it is that they’d like to read. Limiting the curriculum isn’t going to help us encourage children to read more, and I imagine for a lot of them, it’s going to turn reading into a chore.

Maybe I’m being a bit bold here, but doesn’t Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings seem like the ideal GCSE text?