This topic summary covers Knowledge Organiser: Checking Out Me History — John Agard within Checking Out Me History (Agard) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Checking Out Me History (Agard) in Power and Conflict Poetry for GCSE English Literature with 10 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 19 of 19 in this topic. Use this topic summary to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Knowledge Organiser: Checking Out Me History — John Agard
Poem Argument
- British education imposed a version of history that erased Black and Caribbean figures (“Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me”)
- The erased figures — Toussaint, Nanny, Seacole — are recovered and celebrated in lyrical italicised stanzas
- Dialect spelling (Creole) throughout is the form of resistance: the voice the curriculum tried to erase performs the reclamation
- The poem ends with active, present-tense assertion: “I carving out me identity”
- Education is power — and reclaiming history is reclaiming self
Key Terms
- Anaphora — repeated “Dem tell me” mimics the weight of the imposed curriculum
- Creole dialect — non-standard spelling as political resistance, not stylistic decoration
- Bathos — trivial European figures placed where Black history should have been
- Volta — “But now” — the hinge from protest to assertion
- Structural contrast — cramped imposed stanzas vs. free italic celebration stanzas
Key Quotes
- “Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me” — the imposed curriculum
- “Toussaint / a slave / with vision” — erased hero recovered
- “a healing star” — Mary Seacole given cosmic permanence
- “de man who discover de balloon” — bathos of trivial imposed history
- “I carving out me identity” — defiant conclusion
What Agard Achieves
- Makes education itself a form of power — not a neutral gift but a tool of cultural control
- Recovers three specific historical figures who were absent from the curriculum — argument through inclusion
- Uses dialect as form and content simultaneously — the act of writing in Creole IS the reclamation
- Structures the argument so the reader feels the imposed curriculum’s weight before encountering the alternative
- Ends with assertion, not complaint — the poem’s power is that it performs what it argues for
Practice questions for Checking Out Me History (Agard)
In 'Checking Out Me History', Agard writes 'Dem tell me' rather than 'They told me'. What does this choice of language represent?
How does Agard use the poem's alternating structure to challenge colonial education? [2 marks]