Education For Leisure

‘Education for leisure’ was written in the 1980s by carol Anne Duffy during the time when Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister of Great Britain. The aims that were pursued by her government were to encourage an individual pursuit of wealth, very much a capitalist aim. The country’s economics were not in a great state during this time. Especially the more underprivileged parts of the country did not fare well under her government. The schools faced severe cuts to their budgets which was mainly due to the expenses of the Falklands war. These budget cuts meant that the children were not granted the best of educations. This poem would seem to be a direct criticism of the government at the time by Carol Anne Duffy. This is not the only poem that she gives direct criticism towards government especially that of Margaret Thatcher’s.
Education for leisure by carol Anne Duffy is a poem that focuses on a person who is somewhat mentally unstable as a main protagonist. The protagonist we can assume to be quite young who is not in the education system. We can deduce this from when in the poem the protagonist says that “I walk the two miles into town for signing on”. ‘Signing on’ is a slang word for benefits. So the person is obviously quite poor and not living under the best circumstances.
The first line of the poem begins with a rather chilling statement by the person who narrates the poem “Today I am going to kill something”. This is very chilling but in a way also quite juvenile in the way that it is worded which in itself is rather horrible. The childish elements that the character has can be seen throughout the poem such as in the second stanza the person tells us, the reader, that they are tired of being ignored also when in the poem the character describes a phone call and that the person that they are talking to doesn’t know that they are “talking to a superstar”. Again when there is a casual description of him squashing a fly with his thumb showing an act that you