In one of her recent podcasts, author Joanna Penn ruminated on how we encourage or discourage children from writing. https://pca.st/episode/ece3776a-71e7-42ee-b1f4-21cdcf3cb84b
During her conversation with Coleen M. Story, Joanna commented that our creative selves are a bit like children, and we need to have our self-confidence boosted every now and again.
In Joanna’s view, a child should never be turned away from creativity by being told that they should “Go and do some accounting or something,” or, “No, you can’t go play with words…”.
Instead, the child needs to be encouraged to take an interest in reading and writing. It was that sentiment which brought to mind Betty Mulcahy’s view “And no-one would think of stopping a group of children from singing for pleasure, even if they are awful.” (Betty Mulcahy, To Speak True: the art of speaking poetry, (Elsevier, 1969), xiii)
This reminded me of Miss Mawer in relation to Betty Mulcahy (c.1920-2012). Betty was a mime pupil of Miss Mawer, and a professional voice artist in her own right. Betty used Miss Mawer’s tuition in mime as the basis of the relaxation required for public performances of verse speaking. Indeed, in her era, Betty was the only person in Britain who was making her living through performing verse speaking. Poetry was very dear to her heart.
Betty put forward a very interesting point, and Joanna Penn’s podcast reminded me of it. Betty asked whether or not poetry was an art form? What do you think, Dear Reader? Is poetry an art form? If it is, then Betty questions why it is not treated as such within the school curriculum. Music has its own place in the school system, and many schools teach drama, and some teach dance. How many teach poetry?
In Betty’s era, the boy who spoke poetry was the lonely outcast, the misfit who blended in with the wallpaper. Betty wanted to see change. She advocated for poetry to have a wider appeal, discarding its esoteric image and recognising its ability to express human feelings – as art forms do.
Perhaps things changed a little in the 1980s with street poets, but did poetry every find a regular place on the British school curriculum?
Betty Mulcahy argued that if poetry is an art form, then it should be taught as a specialist subject . This would give it the respect that an art form deserves. Indeed, Betty thought that perhaps teachers of English might well be relieved to relinquish the task of presenting poetry to hostile classes.
It was Betty’s belief that if children are encouraged from the earliest age to speak poetry aloud, then they won’t be embarrassed about doing so. No more learning poetry by rote – and especially, stop the writing out of lines as a form of punishment.
For those of you in the education world, is poetry taught as a stand alone subject? Should it be?