‘I squash a fly against the window with my thumb. We did that at school. Shakespeare.’
The misunderstanding comes as when reading King Lear the character felt Shakespeare was approving of violence, correctly accepts Shakespeare was a genius, therefore by killing the speaker becomes a genius or believes this is the case. This is vital to the understanding of the motive for writing this poem, education is rightfully trying to create ambition amongst students but in cases where the topics are misunderstood problems occur.
The structure of Education for Leisure is also important to the understanding of its message, if it had a different structure is could possibly appear to have a lighter meaning as the characters ideas of ‘genius’ can bring a smile to the reader
‘I pour the goldfish down the bog’
When first reading the poem it seems quite trivial and accepted by the reader as many have had the experience of disposing of a dead goldfish. However, the stanzas are broken into four end stop lines which makes it impossible to generate any pace to the reading, it creates the effect of his thought process, it isn’t linked and it adds to the sinister act which creates a darker mood than one would first expect.
The language of Education for Leisure also adds greatly to its overall impact, throughout we see a repetition of the personal pronoun ‘I’ this creates an egotistical atmosphere within the poem, it soon becomes apparent the character is more than happy with himself and his ‘achievements’ which becomes disturbing to the reader as the characters acts result in death for the defenceless.
When reading Education for Leisure it became clear that it did not stand alone in Standing Female Nude as a poem that highlighted the failures of education. Comprehensive similarly tackles aspects of education but I view Comprehensive as more of a cause and Education for Leisure is the result with regards to British youths. To justify this I believe it is important to look at the poem as a whole,
‘Comprehensive’
As a title this is very ambiguous but in modern day it can be understood as schools inclusive of all students regardless of ability and race. The term ‘inclusive’ becomes a key adjective when reading this poem. Duffy speaks through the voices of the children at this school at immediately we can draw comparisons between some characters and that of Education for Leisure, for example the Arsenal fan
‘I don’t suppose I’ll get a job. It’s all them coming over here to work’
There is a distinct lack of ambition in his language which should be addressed by his institute for education, when a student is at such an age at school the possibilities should be endless so to have already accepted failure says a lot about influences around the youngster in Comprehensive and other youngsters this applies to. There is also a fundamental misunderstanding in what the character is proud to boast,
‘I support the National Front’ ‘Arsenal’.
These two do not share much in common as Arsenal in a time of racism included many black players in their starting team as they were not prejudice and benefitted greatly. Wayne shows as in Education for Leisure with Lear that he doesn’t understand what he believes in and this has created a dangerous hatred that could have been avoided if properly educated, not so much in subjects but in terms of life. At such an impressionable age he has obviously taken on the views of his father
‘Dad’s got his own mini-cab’ ‘It’s all them coming over here to work’
Clearly the age of Wayne suggests he has no experience of job hunting but he will have heard the finger pointing of his father trying to justify his position and as a result his views have been carried on by his son, with this image has taken the idea of education over and above schools but has also given responsibility to parents for the ideas of their children. It is evident that with the case of Wayne he has been failed.
Carol Anne Duffy highlights the failure of cultural education at schools such as this comprehensive, granted there is a wide variety of individuals at the school however they do not understand each other
‘I didn’t understand what she was saying, so I didn’t get any milk’
This shows the intolerance of different figures and such a figure that is a role model reacting in such an erratic way shows to pupils that it is acceptable to act in such a way which of course it is not. Such a problem should be resolved top-down in the sense the important figures of schools such as head teachers and staff should eliminate prejudice and misogynist tendencies from their work as it has a direct impact on the children such as Wayne
‘Paki-bashing and pulling girls’ knickers down’
This is a clear example of the impact that influential characters have had on the youths, the racist behaviour being seen as entertainment and the objectifying of females. It should be the responsibility of schools to create a pleasant atmosphere where people can relate to one another without the fear of being ridiculed for differences.
Sheenagh Pugh is very similar to Carol Anne Duffy in the sense that she has noticed the same failures in education however the works of Pugh are on a far more international scale, in a sense this shows the cumulative result of what Duffy highlights on a small scale.
She was nineteen and she was bored details the product of an individual that has been poorly educated, feels undervalued and has poor influences around them. By coming into such power it becomes clear she is obsessed with her self-importance. Comparisons become clear with Pugh’s language in the third stanza
‘She had the word, people lived or died at her option’
As with Education for Leisure it is clear that knowledge of language is important to the character, the ‘word’ is portrayed as a possession for the important individuals to exploit i.e. ‘The fly is in another language’ . By having such power and such a lack of cultural understanding it is as if morality has been corrupted or even abandoned in the quest to clench the desire for more personal value.
It is undeniable that what the three poems highlight with regards to the failures of education need to be addressed but education as a concept is so vast in scale it is almost impossible to find a area that should be targeted in order to get the ball rolling towards improvement.
