Schools 'must teach children broader range of poetry'

Pupils deserve to be introduced to a broad spectrum of poets, from Spike Milligan and Ted Hughes to Geoffrey Hill and Don Paterson, the former Poet Laureate suggested.

In a speech to the NEEC conference (formerly the North of England Education Conference) in York, Sir Andrew said it was tempting for schools to teach poems that would appeal to a pupil's interests if the child was nervous or disliked poetry, but compared it to "only seeing one room in a very big house".

He told delegates: "We live in a culture where writing is precisely as diverse as society itself, and where we need to recognise in appropriate terms the achievement of everything from the raps of Jay Z through to the demanding orthodoxies of Geoffrey Hill."

He added: "Our challenge now is to make sure that our pupils enjoy the range of writing available to them.

"It's very tempting, and especially with students who are already frightened or suspicious or disliking of poetry, to coax them towards it by offering something that appears to speak directly to their experience. By choosing a poem about football for a football-loving boy, a rap for a fan of Eminem, and so on.

"There's nothing wrong with this tactic – provided we recognise that matching like with like is only the beginning of a process.

"To put this another way: each individual kind of poetry is like a doorway into the enormous palace of poetry itself – a place where we make surprising discoveries and connections, and begin to learn that surprise itself is essential to the name and nature of poetry."

He added: "If we give our students only one kind of poetry to read, a kind they immediately recognise, it would be like taking someone to a palace, parking them at the door, and telling them to go no further."

He also warned that in English lessons, poetry for children can end up being about "you've added up the similes, spotted the alliteration and said something about verse structure". He called for writers and poets to work with teachers in schools.

He also suggested the creation of a national poetry reciting competition to encourage youngsters to learn poems off by heart.

Sir Andrew added that lessons should not be limited to children's poetry. He said when he visited primary schools he referred not just to Roald Dahl and Spike Milligan, but introduced riddles, poems such as Emily Dickinson's Snow, and animal verses by Ted Hughes.

He suggested secondary school students could read works by Don Paterson or Geoffrey Hill.