"Education for Leisure" is a poem by

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...

which explores the mind of a person who is planning to commit a

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. Until 2008 the poem was studied at GCSE level in England and Wales as part of the

AQA Anthology The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (the AQA) has produced Anthologies for GCSE English and English Literature studied in English schools. This follows on from AQA's predecessor organisations; Northern Examinations and Assessment Board (NE ...

, a collection of poems by modern poets such as Duffy and

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Description

The poem begins with the lines "Today I am going to kill something. Anything. I have had enough of being ignored and today I am going to play God." The individual in the poem feels undervalued and gradually progresses into insanity by experimenting progressively with violence beginning with killing a fly and a goldfish before terrifying a budgie and going outside armed with a bread knife; the last line of the poem is "I touch your arm" indicating the poet intends to take their first human life and at the same time creating an illusion to the reader they are under threat. The narrator's identity is never fully revealed however there are lines that allude to some facts on the character, one being the narrator is on the dole ("signing on" on a regular basis is mentioned) and it is also twice implied the narrator maybe craved recognition or even celebrity status after leaving school (the character mentions the dole office does not appreciate their autograph and towards the end of the poem tells someone over the phone in a radio station that they are "talking to a superstar"). Teachit.co.uk compares the subject of the poem to the incident where Brenda Ann Spencer carried out a shooting spree in an American school and explained her actions by stating "I don't like Mondays". The killings inspired the Boomtown Rats song

I Don't Like Mondays "I Don't Like Mondays" is a song by Irish new wave group the Boomtown Rats about the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from their third album, '' The Fine Art of Surfacing''. T ...

. The poem is set against a backdrop of rising social problems in the United Kingdom during the 1980s and can be considered critical of

Thatcherism Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and general style of manag ...

. The poem references Gloucester's lines in Act 4 of

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...

, “As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods/ They kill us for their sport”, lines which show how humankind is at the whim of the gods.

Censorship

In 2008 concerns about the levels of teenage

knife crime Knife legislation is defined as the legislation, body of statutory law or case law promulgated or enacted by a government or other governing jurisdiction that prohibits, criminalizes, or restricts the otherwise legal manufacture, importation, sale, ...

in the United Kingdom led to complaints about the inclusion of the poem in a GCSE textbook. Exam Board

AQA AQA, formerly the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, is an awarding body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds examinations in various subjects at GCSE, AS and A Level and offers vocational qu ...

were accused of censorship after it removed the poem from its AQA Anthology after three complaints about the poem. The most vocal complainant was

Lutterworth Grammar School Lutterworth College is a large 11–19 non-selective, inclusive, comprehensive, Church of England Secondary School and Sixth Form College with academy status. Lutterworth College is situated in the rural market town of Lutterworth in the dist ...

's exam invigilator Pat Schofield who described the poem as "absolutely horrendous". Duffy responded to the ban by citing the level of violence in the plays of Shakespeare and by stating that she considered the message of the poem to be pro-learning and anti-violence. Some teachers stated that they would continue to teach the poem. The BBC reported that schools had been told to destroy copies of the Anthology which contained the poem. In 2002 a school in Hull refused to teach the poem. Since the censorship, the new editions of the AQA Anthology contain a page where the poem was with the words " This page is left intentionally blank" as a placeholder.

References

External links

Education for LeisureMrs Schofield's GCSEShort film adaptation by director Dan Allen
{{AQA Anothology Poetry by Carol Ann Duffy