Yesterday, whilst reading an excellent opinion piece by Alice Thomson in The Times , I learnt that the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, is proposing to remove English Literature from the core GCSE curriculum. If Gove’s reforms are accepted, students will be expected to study a newly-reworked English exam focusing primarily on use of language, alongside Maths, one of the sciences, a modern language and either History or Geography – with English Literature relegated to an optional extra. Frankly, I’m terrified. I have been an avid reader since junior school – and it was my English Literature classes at secondary school that first introduced me to the classics. I showed very little interest in the likes of Shakespeare at first; it wasn’t until I went on to study it at A-Level and then at drama school that I was bitten by the bug – but if it wasn’t for those initial classes I might never have felt the need to get around to it. ...
A blog from the actormusocomic. "Devastatingly witty" (EdFestMag)