Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Not for young minds

Sticking with James Joyce for just a moment longer this evening it seemed right to mention that because of proposed changes in reading material in schools Joyce is being dropped in favour of some more modern writers. An article in The Independent has all the details and on the way home I was mulling over what I thought about it and my conclusion (for what it's worth) is that Joyce writes about the stuff of life, which to a readership between 11 and 14 is just goling to be beyond them on so many fundamental levels. So maybe it is a good thing to change things a little bit. Put Harry Potter on the syllabus and for once nearly everyone will pass...