Pas devant les enfants ... Caroline Martin and Nonso Anozie in Othello. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
A US high school teacher lost his job last week over a collection of self-published poetry. Sean Yisrael, assistant principal at Princeton High School, was forced to resign last Friday following an investigation sparked by parental complaints. The complaints came after two 9th graders (14 to 15-year-olds) - who may or may not have requested the collection from Yisrael themselves - were given copies of Yisrael's Words of A Poet.
Sexual references in several of the poems had angered parents and ended in Yisrael's resignation. A Princeton City School District spokeswoman commented that the book covers many different topics, but several poems are of a sexual nature. "I wouldn't call it pornography, but it's just not appropriate for kids. It's adult stuff," she added
And there lies a pressing conundrum: when should young readers start to engage with literature that speaks of life in its entirety?
Did Yisrael arouse anger simply because his is not a standard text? For example Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a book widely taught in the 9th grade, makes explicit reference to child rape and teenage sex. Alas, it's not that simple.
Angelou's autobiographical novel regularly makes the American Library Association list of "challenged" books that have been requested to be kept away from teenage eyes. Others on this list include Slaughterhouse-Five, The Grapes of Wrath - even Twelfth Night has made it on to a recent list. Where young minds and literature are concerned, some people who should know better seem to want to keep teenagers in a state of suspended innocence.
And this is not an "only in America" phenomenon: a UK education body plans to kick Othello out of the classroom for 11 to14 year-olds. The National Assessment Agency, a subsidiary unit of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, has suggested that the themes of race and sexual jealousy in Othello are "too mature and sensitive" for them. Many teachers consulted felt that racism and sexual jealously were not subjects they would "feel comfortable teaching at this level".
This is strange logic. A cursory glance at documents issued from both Ofsted and the QCA prove that race and sex are certainly not taboo subjects when teaching this age group. The 2002 Ofsted report on Sex and Relationships notes approvingly a lesson in a south-east comprehensive where "year 9 pupils were encouraged to reflect on a range of options relating to sexual behaviour and to consider the moral and practical consequences in each case". Suggested lesson plans for tackling racism issued by the QCA itself includes a year 8 plan in which pupils "brainstorm the term 'racial discrimination'". What is it about Othello that has gotten it booted off reading lists for precisely the content that seems to be all the rage in other subject areas?
The problem is that Othello doesn't fit the demands of current thinking on teaching literature. It doesn't fit the idea that literature is yet another tool to socialise children with - it poses more questions than it answers about human relations and provides little by way of life skills coaching. It doesn't fit the demand to be "relevant" to today's teens.
And I suspect Othello's biggest sin may be that it's not easy. At a time when science GCSEs stress scientific literacy rather than scientific knowledge and modern languages are no longer compulsory at GCSE level, did we really expect literature would be unscathed? The benching of Othello beats a retreat to a pedagogic safety zone - teachers did not "feel comfortable" with it.
Call these English teachers wimps, but don't blame them. Today's English teachers are under pressure to consider the "ideological assumptions" of their approach (as the Cox report committee put it), so is it any wonder they're "uncomfortable" with contentious, complex material. Unfortunately the curriculum seems less and less able to handle the ambiguity and complexity that lies at the heart of great literature. Challenging with demanding literature is out of fashion. This is a deep pity. Many of us still hold dear the teacher who pushed us to read beyond our years and experience.
By itself, the sorry tale of Sean Yisrael's poetry is neither here nor there in the greater scheme of life and literature. But we should all be concerned by attempts to sanitise and socialise teenagers' minds through the literature.
