The Decline of English Teaching, Muslims in Australia and more

The Decline of English Teaching

Sir: I taught English and Literature in Melbourne schools for over thirty years. I have a box of letters and cards I cannot toss out, from students, parents, even colleagues, thanking me for inspiring a love of literature, of reading and language.

In my classes, alongside studying Orwell, Shakespeare, the poetry of the First World War, Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Golding, Austen, Euripides, Voltaire, I had every student writing poetry. Often, we began by taking scissors to their prose childhood recollections, and “found” the poetry inside. I watched fourteen-year-olds create poems which rival half of the claptrap winning poetry competitions these days churned out by grant-supported agenda-pushers.

My drama students staged Beckett, Williamson, Shakespeare and Miller. Parents were stunned that their sixteen-year-olds were capable of such sophistication and passion. Too easily we can lose touch with how capable young minds are.

But around 2010, it…