(By the way, in my post on the poetry of oppression, I analyse Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Still I Rise’ alongside the British Guyanese poet John Agard’s ‘Checking Out Me History’ – another GCSE favourite.) From the GCSE and A-Levels to the IB and AP curricula, this book is a regular on ‘recommended books’ lists. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical novel published in 1969, is one example of these ‘sensitive, but widely taught’ texts. Introducing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Puritanical censorship, for all its good intentions, has no place in authentic learning. There is, of course, a strong case to be made for ‘sensitive books’ to be taught in classrooms, if only because engaging with literature is all about understanding humanity in its entirety. I’m not sure how prudish schools are these days (and this could differ vastly across countries and cultures), but while most teachers would cringe at the idea of discussing sex and rape with teenage students, they’re often asked to teach literary works that contain these same sensitive, adult topics.ĭoes the veneer of figurative language, then, make the thematically ‘inappropriate’ more palatable? One of the trickiest things about teaching literature is the ‘appropriateness’ of text selection. Note: This post contains sensitive content!

Maya angelou caged bird quotes