Inappropriate reading book (in my opinion)

*max*

I just downloaded it from the library now too.

adea

We had a letter from the school thanking the parents for their input about the book and the children will be given a different book to read next term as there were concerns raised about some of the content being unsuitable.
The school cited that it was on a list of recommended reading material and the story was loosely based on Romeo and Juliette.

iammumtoone

adea wrote: »

We had a letter from the school thanking the parents for their input about the book and the children will be given a different book to read next term as there were concerns raised about some of the content being unsuitable.
The school cited that it was on a list of recommended reading material and the story was loosely based on Romeo and Juliette.

WOW, so nobody at the school read the book or even flicked through it before handing it out to 30 kids! I think that is disgraceful, or is this standard practice? perhaps some of the teachers on here could advise.

How were they planning to do a class discussion if the teacher had not read it? Or had the class teacher read it and deemed it suitable and has been 'overwritten' by the head?

moomoomama27

iammumtoone wrote: »

WOW, so nobody at the school read the book or even flicked through it before handing it out to 30 kids! I think that is disgraceful, or is this standard practice? perhaps some of the teachers on here could advise.

How were they planning to do a class discussion if the teacher had not read it? Or had the class teacher read it and deemed it suitable and has been 'overwritten' by the head?

Exactly what I was wondering!

I spoke to our head of primary lit about this title, and he said absolutely no way would it be considered suitable reading gorgeous a child of prinary age. It was a title that he had heard of and had been discussed within senior leadership meetings and it was deemed unsuitable content.

Having breufly looked it over I still agree that the content is not suitable, regardless of reading ability for primary children.

bylromarha

iammumtoone wrote: »

WOW, so nobody at the school read the book or even flicked through it before handing it out to 30 kids! I think that is disgraceful, or is this standard practice? perhaps some of the teachers on here could advise.

How were they planning to do a class discussion if the teacher had not read it? Or had the class teacher read it and deemed it suitable and has been 'overwritten' by the head?

I would never hand a book out to my class if I hadn't read it myself. You just don't do it. You need to know if the text will hit the buttons you want it to hit in the class.

Having said that, Malorie Blackman was probably considered "safe" to give to a class of yr 6 due to being so well known, having countless awards to her name for childrens fiction plus being a judge on 500 words so it may have been flicked through rather than critically read.

maman

adea wrote: »

We had a letter from the school thanking the parents for their input about the book and the children will be given a different book to read next term as there were concerns raised about some of the content being unsuitable.
The school cited that it was on a list of recommended reading material and the story was loosely based on Romeo and Juliette.

iammumtoone wrote: »

WOW, so nobody at the school read the book or even flicked through it before handing it out to 30 kids! I think that is disgraceful, or is this standard practice? perhaps some of the teachers on here could advise.

How were they planning to do a class discussion if the teacher had not read it? Or had the class teacher read it and deemed it suitable and has been 'overwritten' by the head?

I'm amazed that the school would go out and buy a whole class set of a new book without having even read it! I can understand them taking recommendations from a list for perhaps adding single titles to the library but a class set unseen that strikes me as a massive waste of money. Hopefully they've learned their lesson.


iammumtoone, of course it's not usual for teachers to use books they've not read. I can remember reading Charlotte's Web (with tears rolling down my face) on holiday one year and the same with the Curious Incident (no tears just reading it on a sun lounger).

Jagraf

Have I missed something? Where does it say the school haven't read it? unless the teacher isn't lesson planning its almost impossible to have not read it.

I would say they've just backed down and gone with the complaints that have been made. It's a shame they didn't ask all parents what they thought and then taken a vote on it.

iammumtoone

adea wrote: »

We had a letter from the school thanking the parents for their input about the book and the children will be given a different book to read next term as there were concerns raised about some of the content being unsuitable.
The school cited that it was on a list of recommended reading material and the story was loosely based on Romeo and Juliette.

Jagraf wrote: »

Have I missed something? Where does it say the school haven't read it? unless the teacher isn't lesson planning its almost impossible to have not read it.

I would say they've just backed down and gone with the complaints that have been made. It's a shame they didn't ask all parents what they thought and then taken a vote on it.

Very true, they do not actually admit they haven't read it, however the lines in bold indicate that they only noticed the content unsuitable when this was pointed out by parents as they say they picked the book from a recommended reading list.

Of course the letter could just be badly worded and they may have read it and thought it suitable, in my opinion if this was the case they would have been better off saying that but concluding if the parents did not agree they would change the book as they valve the parents input.

I don't think there would be need for a vote, those parents who were happy for their children to read still can, I am sure the school would let them keep the book until it is read if they wish.

Jagraf

iammumtoone wrote: »

Very true, they do not actually admit they haven't read it, however the lines in bold indicate that they only noticed the content unsuitable when this was pointed out by parents as they say they picked the book from a recommended reading list.

Of course the letter could just be badly worded and they may have read it and thought it suitable, in my opinion if this was the case they would have been better off saying that but concluding if the parents did not agree they would change the book as they valve the parents input.

I don't think there would be need for a vote, those parents who were happy for their children to read still can, I am sure the school would let them keep the book until it is read if they wish.

Teachers tend to have a whole topic mapped out and lesson planned in advance. They would need to be able to set out aims and objectives of the lessons, and where it cross references other learning objectives in the curriculum. A teacher can't, or shouldn't, just order 30 copies and dish it out.

Its really not the same giving a child a book to read t home compared to guided structured literature lessons.

My biggest problem here isn't the book, its that its really difficult to not have read it first if you are teaching it - almost impossible.

KiKi

JoBatch80 wrote: »

I suggest we all stop considering children to be nothing more than ignorant imbeciles incapable of learning and expanding further than you think. Pre-teen is a really good age to engage with them on difficult topics before they learn to associate them with the shame and embarrassment adults often have already tagged these subjects with.

Give kids the credit they are due - they are way smarter than you think.

All the OP has said is that the book is not suitable for ALL 11 years olds, and her daughter and others weren't ready for it. No-one has said that children are ignorant and incapable of learning, or shouldn't be prepared in life or engaged on different topics. You're suggesting that anyone with the OP's view does consider children to be imbeciles - that's not a very measured reaction.

Not all 11 year olds are 'way smarter' and worldy-wise. My goddaughter is a very young 11 year old. She will grow up in her own time, and she has very open parents who talk to her about things she's ready to learn about. But if she read a book with information about some of these issues in, she'd certainly struggle. She's not incapable of learning, nor do we see her as an imbecile - she's just not ready for that yet.

KiKi