My Ds has brought this poem home from school and been told to learn it. Please come and give me your thoughts on wether I should speak to the school.

[MTPurse]

As the title says, Ds has came home from school today with a Poem to learn, He has to learn it to be read out between a group of them(apparently he was chosen to read it as he is good at drama/being dramatic).

This is all I know, I have no other info on what it is about and why he has to learn it yet

Now I am not into poetry at all so maybe I just don't 'get it' but I really think this is completely unsuitable for Children due to the context. I am not a strict parent at all but Guns , Knives, Swords and Violence have no part in my family life and I will not allow my ds to play cod and stuff like that, in fact we have had numerous arguments about this.

Personally, I get the humour in it and think it would be fine on a staffroom wall but aibu to think it is not suitable for children?


Here is the poem:

The Lesson

Chaos ruled OK in the classroom
as bravely the teacher walked in
the nooligans ignored him
his voice was lost in the din

'The theme for today is violence
and homework will be set
I'm going to teach you a lesson
one that you'll never forget'

He picked on a boy who was shouting
and throttled him then and there
then garrotted the girl behind him
(the one with grotty hair)

Then sword in hand he hacked his way
between the chattering rows
'First come, first severed' he declared
'fingers, feet or toes'

He threw the sword at a latecomer
it struck with deadly aim
then pulling out a shotgun
he continued with his game

The first blast cleared the backrow
(where those who skive hang out)
they collapsed like rubber dinghies
when the plug's pulled out

'Please may I leave the room sir? '
a trembling vandal enquired
'Of course you may' said teacher
put the gun to his temple and fired

The Head popped a head round the doorway
to see why a din was being made
nodded understandingly
then tossed in a grenade

And when the ammo was well spent
with blood on every chair
Silence shuffled forward
with its hands up in the air

The teacher surveyed the carnage
the dying and the dead
He waggled a finger severely
'Now let that be a lesson' he said

Roger McGough :

[MTPurse]

Sorry, Forgot to mention, My Ds is in year 5, He is 10!

[DamnCommandments]

How old is your son?

[DamnCommandments]

X-post

[MTPurse]

He is 10.

[ProfGrammaticus]

Aw they'll love that! I think it's a great idea.

[BlueJug]

Why do PPs never ut the age of the child in an OP?? Is he 8 or 18?

[AlbusPercival]

wow

[LillyBugg]

I don't have kids this age but I really don't think it's appropriate.

[LineyReborn]

Roger McGough is one of my favourite poets but that is secondary school work.

[TooMuchOfEverything]

Sounds fun to me. I thought it was going to be they fuck you up, your mum and dad...

[RomiiRoo]

Definitely not appropriate

[Floggingmolly]

That's a shite poem! . He's supposed to learn it by heart??

[ProfGrammaticus]

I think it is tongue in cheek, with a great rhythm. A good way to explain metaphor to kids who won't see it if it isn't there with a sledgehammer.

[Ubik1]

I was hoping it would be V or
'This be the Verse'


It wouldn't bother me. It's satire. Perhaps ask the teacher about how they will put it into context fur the class.

[Pooka]

Both mine read the poem at about the same age. Ds1 is 10 and went through a bit of a roger mcgough phase last year.

Roger mcgough can very much be for children. I don't think it is inappropriate.

[coffeetasteslikeshit]

Wow indeed. Yeh... Not sure I'd be too happy about that either. I'd probably casually drop it into the conversation with DS'S teacher at pick up time and see what he said.
Sorry, not much help.

[wherehavealltheflowersgone]

YADDNBU op. I'm an English teacher to 11-18 year olds and wouldn't show this to even the oldest ones in my classes, let alone make them learn it by heart!! It's in very poor taste and makes violence humorous. Just too close to the bone in the context of the American high school massacres of recent years. Write a complaint to the HT. I bet the teacher is young, not a parent, and trying to do the whole " hey kids poetry is cool" thing, which is understandable but there are so many better poems out there!!

[DamnCommandments]

I think Y5 is maybe a bit young, but my eldest is only Y3, so maybe I'm underestimating them... I think kids who've already seen the poetry of WW1 would get more out of it. It's very funny, but I don't know whether 9 and 10 year olds would appreciate it. I doubt they'd be traumatised, though - they would certainly recognise that the threat of violence is not real.

[WishICouldThinkOfACoolUsername]

YABU. I'm a teacher and I would happily use it in the right setting. I remember working on this poem myself and it was definitely in primary school - probably when I was about 10/11. I think it's fine - I don't believe for a moment that any of the class will take it seriously. It's probably one of the most engaging poems they could look at. I suspect the teacher will have checked with the head before using tbh.

[megletthesecond]

We did that poem at secondary school. IIRC Roger McGough visited too.

[ilovesooty]

Do teachers have to be parents to make decisions about the curriculum?

[BlueRaptor]

I did something similar at school, a poem about violence and something to do with knives.

However, I was 15/16 and it was at GCSE and actually ended up being removed from the anthology as it was deemed too violent, so yes, I think this is very odd for an 8 year old.

[FattieDoc]

WTF- do they seriously expect year 5 to learn this!
Tbh- I'm shocked so don't know what else to say.

😳

[MTPurse]

wherehavealltheflowersgone it is actually the Head Teacher who has chosen my ds to learn it.

[LineyReborn]

Yes, McGough does write for children.

But lots of his poetry is about love and sex and anger and violence. He doesn't write that for primary schools.