Free speech? pffft.

[Leanne]

There is nothing wrong with teaching university-level stuff to high school kids as long as it's properly scaffolded. In my experience, they WANT to be challenged (just as long as they don't have to do too much extra work!). My students, at least, generally love the idea that poetry can be banned and I try to get them to write as edgy as possible -- at first they think that means just saying "fuck" a lot, until I prove to them how much of a cliche that is by showing them some really bad spoken word. Eventually most of them come around to the idea that they can dig a bit deeper and get to what's really bothering them. No masterpieces yet, but a lot of kids who leave with a stronger sense of self-expression and empathy.

But then, Australia doesn't have free speech laws -- but we do have freedom for open and honest political communication. In other words, we aren't supposed to attack individuals with inflammatory and discriminatory language but the government is absolutely fair game. Poetry is political, after all.