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| GCSE poem dropped over knife fear | GCSE poem dropped over knife fear |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| An exam board is removing a poem about a knife-carrying violent loner from its anthology for GCSE English because of fears over teenage knife crime. | An exam board is removing a poem about a knife-carrying violent loner from its anthology for GCSE English because of fears over teenage knife crime. |
| The AQA exam board has decided to withdraw the poem Education for Leisure written by Carol Ann Duffy. | The AQA exam board has decided to withdraw the poem Education for Leisure written by Carol Ann Duffy. |
| The exam board is writing to schools to advise them to destroy the copies of the anthology - and says it will send replacements not containing this poem. | The exam board is writing to schools to advise them to destroy the copies of the anthology - and says it will send replacements not containing this poem. |
| The poem begins with the line: "Today I am going to kill something. Anything." | The poem begins with the line: "Today I am going to kill something. Anything." |
| It describes the thoughts of a disturbed, isolated individual who feels underappreciated and undervalued and who kills a fly then a goldfish. The poem concludes with this angry loner going outside with a bread knife. | It describes the thoughts of a disturbed, isolated individual who feels underappreciated and undervalued and who kills a fly then a goldfish. The poem concludes with this angry loner going outside with a bread knife. |
| 'Public concern' | 'Public concern' |
| Some teachers have been complaining for years about the poem's inclusion in the anthology. | |
| The exam board said the poem had been a "popular choice" for pupils - allowing GCSE English students to debate issues about the state of mind of the poem's narrator. | |
| But a spokeswoman said the board had received a complaint and against a background of fears over teenage knife crime had now decided to drop it from the anthology. | |
| "People will have different views on this - but we have to make a decision in the light of what is currently happening," she said. | "People will have different views on this - but we have to make a decision in the light of what is currently happening," she said. |
| The exam board said the decision had not been taken lightly but that the selection of poems had to respond to current "social issues and public concern". | The exam board said the decision had not been taken lightly but that the selection of poems had to respond to current "social issues and public concern". |
| Carol Ann Duffy's literary agent, Peter Strauss, told the BBC's iPM programme that the poem was not a promotion of violence. | Carol Ann Duffy's literary agent, Peter Strauss, told the BBC's iPM programme that the poem was not a promotion of violence. |
| "This poem is pro-education and anti-violence. It is not glorifying violence in any way," said Mr Strauss. | "This poem is pro-education and anti-violence. It is not glorifying violence in any way," said Mr Strauss. |
| "Carol Ann Duffy is a vocational poet for the young. She gets children fired up about language and verse. She talks to more schoolchildren than I've ever met. She's encouraged more people to have a love of words and a love of education than anyone else I know," said Mr Strauss. | "Carol Ann Duffy is a vocational poet for the young. She gets children fired up about language and verse. She talks to more schoolchildren than I've ever met. She's encouraged more people to have a love of words and a love of education than anyone else I know," said Mr Strauss. |
| The AQA anthology includes several other poems by Carol Ann Duffy and a selection of work by modern writers Seamus Heaney, Gillian Clarke and Simon Armitage and earlier poets including Yeats, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Blake. | The AQA anthology includes several other poems by Carol Ann Duffy and a selection of work by modern writers Seamus Heaney, Gillian Clarke and Simon Armitage and earlier poets including Yeats, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Blake. |