The National Curriculum seems to be working

In a lecture on irony yesterday, the lecturer first used an example from 'A Modest Proposal' by Jonathan Swift. She asked if we were familiar with the text, and a few cursory hands were raised. Her next example for analysis was 'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browning. She again asked if anyone was familiar with it. Three quarters of the lecture theatre put their hands up. She was taken aback and wondered why so many of us knew it. There was quiet laughter as the realisation spread that we'd practically all studied it at GCSE. Five or six years ago, almost 200 fourteen and fifteen year olds were sat in GCSE English lessons in classrooms across the UK, reading 'My Last Duchess'. Little did we know that several years down the line we would all smile in recognition at the 56 lines, at university, in a stylistics lecture, on a cold Thursday afternoon in Nottingham.