I have feelings about this GCSE drop a topic (poetry) news. Essentially, arts education has to be accessible and encouraged outside of exams & outside of school, as much as possible. Engagement Marking We need to teach poetry and other arts practice with purpose THREAD

And that just doesn’t happen. The systems are not fit for purpose. Isn’t the real issue that the entirety of the arts is underfunded and undervalued and the only way government and organisations can qualify/quantify is finances and formal education??

If that’s so then you have to address wider systems. How is Poetry/art taught from 0-14? And also, another gripe, if teachers dehumanise kids, which to an extent the system encourages (You have to ask to go to the toilet and be taught to the curriculum aims bcoz u is robot)...

...then no one is really taking in any of the arts. How much are we encouraging young people to make the art THEY want to make right now? Maybe that’s through TikTok, YT, TV, film, music. If we need poetry analysis, let’s also help them to analyse the arts they already know about

But we undervalue arts that kids enjoy because it’s entertainment and entertainment is formulaic and attention-seeking, but so is the way we are TEACHING and ASSESSING poetry in schools at GCSE. Don’t you see?? Engage with them where they are, not where you are. It’s not about us

We can teach entertainment arts and poetry together. We can be imaginative, pull things from all parts of history and the world. Think about them, talk about them. But we keep inheriting these systems of power—And I know people think that giving people the best GCSE they can is

giving them power & readying them for the world. But kids learn & remember more from each other, from social dynamics in schools, than teaching itself. We inherit power & keep traumatising kids with docility silence when the artists they’re studying are EXPRESSIVE. U C THE POINT?

Fortunately, kids are learning all about expression in other ways, but like, yeah, sure, let’s force them to learn about poetry in these damaging HYPOCRITICAL environment for the arts than enable governments to dehumanise them and expect very little from the world and art

Instead of poetry, I think there should be a whole topic on how systems are all made up, how to question authority, how to lead, as well as understanding your human rights &protected characteristics. I’ve no doubt some teachers would learn something from that.

How else can kids contextualise the importance of literature & understand why the poetry canon is what it is??How often’s a teacher equipped 2 discuss the reason they’re reading this set poem instead of another is coz of a set of privileges & gatekeepers leading up to publication

ALSO! what I dislike most this very minute is the outcome of people not engaging with wider systems learning: people complaining or saying they’re sad then doing nothing. Did you know you can share poetry you love? You can talk about poetry with non poets? You can gift poetry?