Diversity of thought, Shelley and the status quo

Percy Bysshe Shelley. Ian Barge would like to set ministers a challenge when reading the poet’s works. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty

I share the concerns of the trenchant defenders of diversity of thought in education (Letters, 13 November). Having taught A-level English literature, I challenge any minister to explain how any faithful, perceptive reading of William Blake’s London or Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind could avoid discussion of the poets’ ferocious critiques of the status quo. Oddly enough, exam boards never seemed to include the stultifying tedium of late Wordsworth in their syllabus requirements. Might it be that establishment conformism is at odds with creative fire? Heaven forbid!
Ian Barge
Ludlow, Shropshire