Times caption: Shakespeare out, Sappho in, is the call from Streatham and Clapham High School in south London (IAN JONES)
A piece in yesterday’s Times by Sian Griffiths, Education Editor:
“Stale, pale” men should be replaced on GCSE and A-level syllabuses by more female writers, scientists, classicists and composers, according to some of Britain’s top private girls’ schools.
They are calling for changes such as replacing Shakespeare’s Macbeth with Aphra Behn’s The Rover on the GCSE English literature syllabus, mathematician Ada Lovelace to become a household name and the Greek female poet Sappho to be on classics courses.
Philippa Terry, a sixth-former at Streatham and Clapham High School, south London, has written to Damian Hinds, the education secretary, complaining that “school is just a magical mystery tour of white men’s achievements”.
She is being backed by the Girls’ Day School Trust. They want children to be taught from books such as Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World and sweeping reforms of GCSEs and A-level syllabuses.
Gill Cross, deputy head at Streatham and Clapham, said: “Our only hope is education and that must be a just, equal education where different voices inform, guide and inspire. UK education has too long been in the hands of the stale, pale male.” [J4MN: Ms Cross publicly admits to being ageist, racist, and sexist. She should be fired.]
You can subscribe to The Times here.
If everyone who read this gave us £5.00 – or even better, £5.00 or more, monthly – we could change the world. £5.00 monthly would entitle you to Bronze party membership, details here. Benefits include a dedicated and signed book by Mike Buchanan. Click below to make a difference. Thanks.
