Teacher Banning 8 y.o. DS from bringing Bunny vs Monkey books to school for his friends to read

No, I cannot see a trajectory between Bunny vs Monkey and murder.

I strongly doubt the class teacher can either.

You haven't even read them.

'These books are fab and it's great that you're reading them, however they are just TOO funny and I need the class to be calm and sensible so can you please swap them after school, or take them into the library to read at lunchtime' would have been a better approach to 'banning' them from the lesson.

Ok but can you see any particular trajectory with this? If not, fair enough - maybe the teacher can and would prefer not to be part of it 🤷‍♀️

Have you had a dyslexic child?! My child’s teacher and the SENCO work very hard finding books my DC feels engaged in an can try to enjoy for her reading ability. If you have a child who can read, feel free to scoff at the school’s resources. If you have an 8 year old with the reading ability of a 5 year old - those resources are invaluable.

Thanks for the tone of superiority and rudeness aimed at a parent with a child with a learning disability though! Nice one.

Yes it's annoying but it sounds like this isn't going to put him off reading altogether. If it was the only book he liked I would be speaking to his teacher about it.

Reading. Yes. But taking your stuff into school results in arguments about loss, theft, damage. Your saying its friends. Arguments between friends take loads of time to resolve as well. Something teachers don't want to expend time one. Or do you think the teacher should spend time everyday dealing with kids arguing over toys, creations, books and treasures OR that your child should have some sort of special permission?

Surely it’s important to find out from the person involved, as well as OP’s son, exactly the circumstances and to explain how he has interpreted what was said and how much it’s upset him.

I somehow doubt that the five children arrested for murder were taking a break from reading silly comic books when they did it.

They're doing thinks like building shrink guns or inventions that take the characters into meta verses. Are we banning Danger Mouse etc now as well?

There are plenty of teachers on this thread saying that the teacher in question was wrong to criticise an 8 year old boy's reading choices.

Boys who get a 4+ in English GCSE = 65.4%
Girls who get a 4+ in English GCSE = 77.1%

Boys massively underperform compared to girls at GCSE, their poor literacy is a huge problem for the country. We need boys to read more. Reading more improves GCSE results.

Any teacher who sends a boy home crying because she criticised his reading choices needs to know about it.

Any teacher who thinks that it is ok that this happened needs to reflect on the figures I've just posted.

I was referring to the “five children arrested over the murder of an 80 year old man” situation

Perhaps I should have been more clear. But any casual approach to violence is not a good look tbh. Do we want our boys normalising “silly violence”?

I did my dissertation on Enid Blyton!

I don’t blame teachers for being annoyed about the stuff they have to deal with and agree a lot of people are entitled and complain for no good reason. However if the teacher went into detail about how inappropriate the books are to the child I think the teacher overstepped the mark. These are children’s books and the parent is happy for the child to read them. The sharing of the books on school property is a different matter and I can see why a teacher would not want it going on during school hours or having anything to do with it. No need to tell the child the book is inappropriate though

The school decide what books the students should read while in school and purchase these. I don't think children should be allowed to take in their own books and run a mini library service within the school. Children shouldn't get to decide what other children read. What if parents don't like their child reading the sort of books your ds takes in? They may complain to the school and it can all get a bit messy, because these are not books that have been okayed by the school to read during school. Maybe your ds can start a book club independent of the school. Pleaaw let the teacher get on with her job, without making her life a bit more difficult just bc your son came home crying because he didn't like the rules.

I guess the main issue here is the teacher criticising the book directly to your son. Ideally, if she didn't want the book read in class, she should have had a quiet and diplomatic word with you.

First day back at school (here) and already entitled parents are complaining about the teacher, want to go to the headteacher blah blah because their little Johnie was told not to bring in books to loan out. Bugger the disruption it causes when kids start arguing about which book they want, or that it’s come back torn. Parents need to go into the classroom for an afternoon and see what teachers have to put up with. There is a crisis in teacher recruitment, wonder why?

Well aware of that.

You can have a hill to die on and have much needed words with teachers about why they have fucked up and need a word with themselves without being confrontational.

But still important to challenge on certain things. This is 100% one.

This, a million times.

I deal with the fall out of children, especially boys, who are put off reading from an early age.

By 11, getting them back into books is a huge struggle.

I’d put money on what the teacher said being somewhat different to what the child reported.

FGS, let the teacher do her job. She’ll be trying to figure out if introducing BvM to the class will be a non event or set 12 year 4 boys into a spiral of fart jokes that take the rest of the class and her attention away from what they should be doing.

I agree with this opinion in terms of the value of these books in motivating reluctant readers and SEN children but wholeheartedly disagree with the suggestion of complaining officially.

First step is for the op to approach the teacher, ask (in a friendly, non-confrontational way) why she doesn't want op's ds bringing the books into school.

If it's logistics, behaviour, disrupting learning etc then fair enough and explain to ds.

If the teacher repeats the value judgement that op's son relayed to her, then explain how upset ds was and then say why you value the books, maybe sharing positive feedback given by both parents and teachers on this thread.

If the teacher isn't swayed (not necessarily to allow the sharing but to appreciate the value of the books) it might be worth trying to talk to the English lead.

The op's son is going to be in this class for a year. Going in all guns blazing or going over the teacher's head by making a formal complaint, isn't conducive to creating positive relationships.

The OP said that the words 'violent' and 'inappropriate' were used.

I doubt that the OP somehow got this wrong or it was miscommunicated... It's fairly explicit and difficult to mistake.

Perfect age for it, no? I devoured the Horrible Histories books as a child, and it’s still useful stuff when watching University Challenge.

The kid came home crying and believes that the teacher disapproves of his reading choices. If she doesn’t then she really should be aware that she fucked up getting her message across so that she can clarify.

It's silly season in school the first few weeks of term.

Just breathe

It will all settle down.