To think Miss Honey in Matilda is overly personal?

Yes I agree with you about discussing fiction as I said in my post! I just don't agree with nitpicking something like this.

I think viewed through a modern perspective it’s possible to say Miss Trunchbull is a clear villain and the children dislike and mistrust her.

Miss Honey is potentially more problematic from a safeguarding point of view.

The flinging of a girl around the place by her hair by the headteacher, on the other hand is fine 🤷🏻‍♀️

In any case I like Miss Honey. I know she could be soft but she was badly abused herself.

As others have said it’s just a story but it’s also set in older sometimes less formal times.

There are entire boards and forums and sub forums for discussing fiction. People do degrees in it.

We know it’s a story. Discussing it is fun.

Miss Honey always bothered me, even as a child.

So many children were abused with her knowing about it because she couldn't and wouldn't stand up to her aunt.

I will say though in early 2000's, my entire Y6 class were invited to our teacher's home - barn conversion in the Peak District - of an afternoon.

We had to stay in the huge garden and luckily it was a nice warm sunny day.

I don't remember permission slips specifically but reading this thread, I think there must have been something put out to the parents.

That was the only time though.

I think the miserable person is the one who is pointing out that a fictional character in a fictional children's story isnt realistic and is over personal... There are plenty of things to discuss about fiction without nitpicking things like this!

I would be more concerned about the headmistress.

I can’t believe the number of posters whining it’s a story.

What miserable fuckers. Do you never discuss books, films or TV shows? Ever?

It’s a book written in the 80s - which also featured a school child swung by its plaits by the headteacher. It is simply a work of fiction - fictional portrayals can be inconsistent with plausible reality.

Yes, you could use a drill to clock a milometer back in the day. Do a bit of googling

Mary poppins used an umbrella as transport. Is that going to send people bandy because she didn't have a travel card??

I think the same when watching friends & Ross broke the little girls leg & was let into her bedroom alone to visit her, also he brought her to Chandler & Joey's apartment. Or in Miracle on 34th street when the child was hanging out with the grown man in his apartment. I never thought these things were unusual back in the 90s 😅

My friend & I went for tea at a female teacher's house in 1988. It was wasn't really for social reasons as I think we may have discussed some coursework but I remember she was really posh & got out her china teaset! When we look back on it now we can't believe it actually happened. I must have mentioned it to my mum but she obviously didn't question it at the time. I was older than Matilda though. I was 15

YANBU. That school is full of safeguarding concerns. Who was their DSL?!

😂

And on the theme of other literature:
Harry Potter's teachers should be reported to OFSTED for failing to notice an obvious safeguarding concern.

There is no way that they could look at him and compare how Dudley was treated and not raise a safeguarding concern. Because there was another child the same age it would have stood out completely.
Which is why I didn't feel it fitted well that they treated him so obviously badly, because the aunt and uncle were all about the image.

In the early 90s we’d go to a teacher’s house for a pizza and movie party - our parents signed permission slips. And my Dad remembers in the 60s it was normal for (usually youngish) teachers to marry students when they graduated.

Norms change. Fantasy stories are fantasy. It’s outrageous on purpose.

It's been a while since I read them.

But yeah, surely the BFG should have been arrested for kidnapping a young girl.
James should have been taken into care rather than living with his horrible aunts and having to run away in a giant peach with big talking insects.
Danny's dad encouraging him into a life of crime by involving him in poaching.
Terrible.

Still love those stories. I remember being given Matilda for Christmas and finishing it in 3 days 😀

Makes Miss Honey seem very benign!

It is a ✨story✨

I got the book when it came out (great big hardback unlike all the other Dahl books I have). Recall it being a similar fanfair to when the Harry Potter books were released. And yes she visits Matilda in the book with the story set in Buckinghamshire where Dahl lived.

Thought nothing of Miss Honey at the time, but Trunchbull?...my god.

Exactly this. And indeed many children who have not been abused have probably fleetingly wished their favourite teacher could take them home after being told off by their parents. I read it in the 80s when it came out (I was 9) and never thought my teacher could or should adopt me irl, any more than I believed I could spill water glasses using the power from my eyes.

It's a story. It's not real

Miss Honey is the dreamworld teacher for an abused child who longs for a friendly adult who takes them out of their situation.

Books are full of things that if you look closely at would fail safeguarding or health and safety etc. It's often why they are so appealing, because it's taking the imagination of longing and making it seem possible.