This is the individual oral for English language and literature.My oral revolves around the global issue
of the failure of education and more specifically how the kids are being unheard and its
consequences. This global issue is in conjunction with the UNSG sustainable goal number 4, Quality
Education.
The first text I will be analysing is Education for Leisure. This is from Carol Ann Duffy’s 1985
collection, Standing Female Nude.Duffy
wrote the poem as a social commentary
while teaching in a school in London’s East End.The 5 stanza poem shows
a young person who presumably left school and is on an unemployment
benefit and his frustration with the world.He believes he is a superstar and
is filled with talent but with the same mundane education he is forced to
limit his capabilities.
The poem’s title, “Education for Leisure,” points to both the failures of the
speaker’s education in school and his choice to educate himself in an
entirely different way. By killing animals, the speaker self-educates and
prepares himself for a very dark form of “leisure,” or recreation: violent acts
against other people.
The overall tone of the poem is very frightening forcing the reader to
believe the person is capable of doing terrible things, this is pretty evident
when he starts killing every living creature he finds from a fly to a
goldfish.But along with the fear-provoking tone, one can find the tone
containing hues of a wounded child too, for example when he states “I have
had enough of being ignored”.Lines like these highlight the global issue
where we can understand that education as a whole is just feeding
knowledge into the students mind but his emotions and mental health isn’t
stabilized.
In the third line itself when the speaker says “I am going to play
god”,suggests that he sees his violent and narcissist behaviour as a way of
controlling others.He wants to take control of his life that seems far beyond
his power to change.
To showcase his violent behaviour ,the writer uses a very creative way of
expressing the emotion, the boy squashes and kills the fly and that
reminds him of a line that he read from Shakespeare in school and just like
he couldn’t understand much of Shakespeare’s Language, the living cant
understand the language of the fly he just killed.
Towards the end of the 2nd para he starts with obsessing over himself
.From his brain to his breath he believes everything is filled with talent, this
is evident when he says, “I breathe out talent on the glass to write my
name.” The speaker feels the world is his kingdom and he is the king.
Even the cat gets scared because of his violent behaviour but the speaker
seems to think its due to the cats respect for his extraordinary talent.
Although the speaker read the same texts as everyone else in school and
received the same education, the supposed power of literature to build
empathy does not seem to have had much effect on him. He even echoes
a common inspirational phrase often taught to schoolchildren: "I could be
anything at all." But unfortunately he decides to take the negative meaning
of it and becomes a killer.
Carol Ann Duffy is even aware of the psychology of such young people.She
knows One of the characteristics of disturbed children and teenagers who commit murder
is that they are initially drawn to kill and torture animals, often then progressing to tormenting
siblings, and then humans.
Towards the end when he has killed all the living creatures in his house and asserts ,”There
is nothing left to kill.”he calls up the radio.This action shows us how under that deep violent
child theres still a human left because he seeks human approval but the man cuts him off
and that’s still another blow for the speaker who tells us from the start that he’s tired of being
ignored.So after all this he prepares himself for the next step,killing humans…
The non lit body of work ill be exploring is The Kids are Coming by Tones and I,Released on
30th August 2019.This song potrays the fact that the youth are misunderstood by the older
generations and are perceived as a generation whose just on their smartphones and ruining
their future.
The singer starts arguing from the title itself when she says “The Kids are coming” this
means that the kids are approaching to clean up the mess made by our forefathers and
ensure the equality and rights every person deserves.
Even the chorus states that the kids which are the millennials are here to bring the change
required in the society and they are so adamant they wont stop until they get it and will
punish those too who come in between them.The line “Kids are gunning” is meant
figuratively as the method used by the kids is non violent and peaceful for example
protests.The singer even says later that the kids aren’t going to war and killing people .The
kids are coming and they are a force to be reckoned with.
Throughout the first verse the lyrics state that no one wants to listen to the kids nowadays
and the adults are still stuck with the old minded theory of us being naughty and
immature.The singer even exaggerates it to point where she says the adults speak of the
young as if we killed someone ,which is a crime.
An array of thoughts are being conveyed in the second verse.she starts with chalking out the
fact that the kids are often misunderstood because the older generations don’t understand
what the kids are doing for equality and rights.The line”And why we live this way” supports
her argument even more because the typical old school thinking doesn’t comprehend the
need for gay rights or implementing eco friendly solutions to outdated technologies.Then the
lines “You
create the law but can't control our thoughts
And no, we won't be bought” explains how the older generations or even the outdated
education system of some countries can try to influence the minds of the youth as it doesn’t align
with their racist,sexist and homophobic views but they cant be bought because they don’t care for
money they only care for the future.
So overall the song tries to convey that the kids are hell bent in making significant changes to society
and the Australian singer considers herself to be a part of this generation too.So this song highlights
the global issue where the education system is poor as it just gives bookish knowledge and doesn’t
teach the students to fight for the basic civil rights and equality much needed in the society.And if
the kids themselves are self aware and fight in forms of protests they are opposed by their parents
and them being unheard can lead to major mental health issues.In both the texts we can see how
the global issue is impacting people around the world. We can even regard this as a timeless issue
because both the texts were written in different decades but the issue is still prominent now.
TONES AND I-CANT BE HAPPY ALL THE TIME- Song about the struggles of rising to fame so
quickly and dealing with a dramatic change in lifestyle - the good and bad the comes
with it.
TONES AND I-JOHNNY RUN AWAY-Song about how johnnys father didn’t accept him
being gay and later johnny died.
Dolphins and war photographer