What the DfE think you should have read by time you leave school

[Nearly Sane]

Aye right!

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/100-classic-books-all-secondary-pupils-should-read-dfes-definitive

[Maeght]

I haven't read any of them. I don't do fiction!

[Rhiannon]

It's not exclusively a fiction list.

Surprised by how many I've read. Usually feel a bit thick looking at those kinds of lists.

[Leonard James]

It's not exclusively a fiction list.

Surprised by how many I've read. Usually feel a bit thick looking at those kinds of lists.

Don't pay to much attention to what "they" say. 

A student can have read all those books and still be sadly inadequate to face life ... and the converse is equally true.

[Maeght]

It's not exclusively a fiction list.

No, not exclusively, that's true.

Surprised by how many I've read. Usually feel a bit thick looking at those kinds of lists.

I don't worry about not being 'well read' I'm afraid.

[Nearly Sane]

It's a poncy list for the end of secondary school. It would put me off reading if I got given that especially as I am happy to bet that Nick Gibb hadn't read anything like all of them at the time of leaving secondary, and I doubt he has now.


I read lots but agree with Leonard, it isn't the sign of anything.

[Rhiannon]

All that may be true, but I still like quite a number of the books on the list.

[Nearly Sane]

All that may be true, but I still like quite a number of the books on the list.

I am not saying that there are no good books , the list but that it is a counterproductive list, that will put people off reading. It is an indulgence for a schools minister to ponce about on stuff like this.

[Rhiannon]

I am not saying that there are no good books , the list but that it is a counterproductive list, that will put people off reading. It is an indulgence for a schools minister to ponce about on stuff like this.

All lists like this are counterproductive. But does anyone pay the slightest attention to them?

[Nearly Sane]

All lists like this are counterproductive. But does anyone pay the slightest attention to them?

Disagree that all lists are counterproductive. They can be if they are simply prescriptive, unrealistic and indulgent as this one is. Further if no one pays any attention to them then they wouldn't be counterproductive. If  a list is brought out by the DfE under the aegis of the schools minister, then I would like it to be at least in touch with reality.

[Rhiannon]

Disagree that all lists are counterproductive. They can be if they are simply prescriptive, unrealistic and indulgent as this one is. Further if no one pays any attention to them then they wouldn't be counterproductive. If  a list is brought out by the DfE under the aegis of the schools minister, then I would like it to be at least in touch with reality.

My experience of government lists is that they are. It's that sort of thing that I was referring to. We got presented with a list for our then two year old to read at one point.

[jeremyp]

It's completely unrealistic.

Firstly, for many children, it would be an achievement to read 100 books of any kind by the time they leave school, never mind 100 classics.

Secondly, I have read some of those books. I remember reading The Secret Agent at school and it was pretty much an exercise in exquisite torture. A lot of those books are quite hard to read thanks to the archaic language and some of them wallow in depression. To make the average child read these books is to teach them that reading is a really nasty boring chore.

Thirdly, the idea that you should read Romeo and Juliet instead of watching it as a play is totally absurd unless you are studying it in Eng. Lit.

[Brownie]

I've read quite a lot of them, many while I was still at school.  I wish I'd written down the ones I haven't read because I can't remember them all now - the War Poetry book is one, African Poetry, the Decamaron - some others.  We did a lot more Shakespeare than the plays quoted when I was at school.  I'd put Hanif Kureshi on that list and Vikram Seth's 'A Suitable Boy' (unless they are already there and I missed them).  Can't remember seeing Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' which is wonderful and some of John Steinbeck but these are personal preferences.  Good to see that appreciation of literature is alive and well in British education!
 (G F Newman also wrote a book called, "Crime and Punishment", quite different to the classic Dostoyevsky of course but very interesting.  I'm not suggesting that should be on the list)