Poetry incites kids to knife crime...?

[high sandwich maker of lamuella]

The poem 'Education for Leisure' has been taken off the English GCSE syllabus in the UK because of increases in knife crime and the fact that it is implied that at the end the speaker stabs someone. Never mind that 'Hitcher' is still on and involves stoving a hitchhiker's head in with a krooklok.

Anything similar happened that people know of or can I still have some faith in humanity?

EDIT - link for an article about this, I'm not sure if this wiill work so just copy and paste it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/04/gcses.english

 

[Legion]

That is amusing and due to the idiocy of the UK government and education board, not surprising.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

the poem is kind of wack, in a good way.

 

[wordsmith]

What about Poe's Telltale Heart? The servant kills his master *with his own bed*, then buries him under the floorboards, then sits on the floor whilst telling the police that his master is away on business.

 

[lvl9000_woot]

Only in America....the UK.

....wait, what??

 

[rokkolpo]

the choking game.

 

[Timotei]

When parents blame the teachers for their childrens' deviance instead of themselves.

I seriously doubt someon who spends only 5-7 hours a day/5 dasy a week has a serious chance of fucking up your child.

 

[Stevato]

Aye, That poem was awesome, I did it for GCSE when they still allowed it. Carol Anne Duffy had somethingt to say about it being removed If I remember rightly. Have you only just found this out though? It was atleast 2 years ago when they removed it

 

[justhereforthemoney]

Is there a link for an article to go along with this thread?

 

[Aardvark]

If I had things my way, all poetry would be removed from the syllabus. Nothing destroys literary appreciation like being forced to endure it at school.

 

[high sandwich maker of lamuella]

Really? my teacher said it was still in last year because people had already started the course on it but they just took the picture of the knife off the page, what with it glorifying knife crime and all...

We still read it because my teacher was so annoyed at it being taken off.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Pathetic, we live within a society which has become so immensely paranoid upon the following decade saying "boo" to someone will ignite possible heart attacks.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

I'd care more if Carol Ann Duffy wasn't such a travesty to mankind. Poet Laureate? Just further proof that standards have irreparably fallen.

She needs the rest of her work censoring, just so it can't torture the minds of people anymore.

 

[Amnestic]

Is there a link for an article to go along with this thread?

Because googling is hard for you. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/04/gcses.english]

 

[Chipperz]

Bah, when I was a kid, we had to read a story about a guy who commits suicide by cop with a toy gun after his mate was stabbed/beaten to death by a gang of upper-class psychopaths (I can't remember). None of us started killing people!

Later, we read Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which has some pretty impressively fucked up sequences...

 

[high sandwich maker of lamuella]

Is there a link for an article to go along with this thread?

Yeah, I just put one in.

 

[orangebandguy]

Oh yes, I remember that poem, I was the last year that had to read it. I may be a part of history or something!

It's just a poem, all the poems in the anthology made me want to kill myself anyway.

 

[GBlair88]

At least they've stopped blaming videogames for kids being violent little shits.