The brainlessness of an English Tutor. Fuming

Much Ado about Nothing.
Just words.

1. What "biz"
2. That is true, but a parent has the right to dictate what media their child consumes
3. Morality is influenced by beliefs. In a Godless society it doesn't make sense to restrict peoples pleasures. Many of us believe in an objective morality which is from their religious belief. We have a country that is nearly 10% muslim, and we also have a percentage of christians, and those of other faiths that will not allow their kids to be subject to any media that is deemed unsuitable. This is our right to practice our beliefs. In a similar light Gay people have rights under UK law to practice their sexuality, as does sex outside of marriage, and a host of other things that we do not believe in. If we live in a democracy then that means we all have rights to believe and bring our children up as we will.
4. "homophobia means you lack morals" according to who? That is subjective or can you provide me an objective framework for that statement?
5. How do define Homophobia. Being abusive towards those people? or just believing it to be wrong? If I'm against sex before marriage, what label have you got for that?
6. Incest relationships are also part of "real life" does that mean I have to accept that? Also doesn't violate the harm principle if it was done with infertile people. Do you accept that or are you Incestaphobic?
7. Morals are based on beliefs. In my opinion it is better to have objective and solid beliefs than ones that change every decade with the trends of society.

Kind Regards Pointythings

'That LGBT stuff' is part of what we in the biz call 'real life'. And literature is there to hold up a mirror to real life and make us think about it. You may want to be an unreconstructed homophone and turn back time to the good ol' 1950s when everyone was in the closet, but you can't. And 'beliefs' and 'morals' are not the same thing at all - for a start, being homophobic means you lack morals.

*disclaimer...not read war and peace bit hav enjoyed the tales of Dennis and Gnasher.

Honestly there's not much difference. Dennis starts with the same letter as Dolokhov. Coincidence? I think not.

My vote for the book (if it hadn't already been revealed) is something by Judy Blume.

Exactly

All this "a book written by 2 celebrities? The horror".... David Walliams had a huge number of books out, considered at least at one point as a modern day Roald Dahl (and some think this is wildly exaggerated). Personally think they're OK but they definitely get plenty of children reading and that's positive

We don't all start out reading Emma and Frankenstein and War and Peace...

There’s a LOT of snobbery behind directed the way of this book. I went to see The Creakers at Christmas also written by Tom Fletcher. And it was brilliant and clever.
He’s also one of the few celebrity authors who is spoken highly of by other writers.
There’s different types of celebrity authors, there’s the ones who don’t really do it and it’s ghost written, all the way up to the ones who spend years researching and drafting on labours of love (Mat Osman, bassist of Suede and formerly more famous brother of Richard, is an example here).

While I openly confess having never read any of the Harry Potter books, as I understand it they were never considered literary masterpieces. But what they did do is bring thousands of children in to enjoying books.

We should stop the snobbery. If a child starts at the beano and ends up reading war and peace, lets encourage them. *disclaimer...not read war and peace bit hav enjoyed the tales of Dennis and Gnasher.

Oh and both of those "has beens" are currently preparing for tours

People can and do love badly written pulp

It's why pulp fiction is popular

Twilight is utter dross. It still got lots of teenagers reading who then moved into reading things like Dracula

Actually my point was the opposite
We can't slam this for being "derivative" because all fiction is
We just embrace what we have

Teachers are hopefully teaching a combination of critical thinking while reading a book as well as encouraging pupils to read for enjoyment, Finding that happy medium for all the students is important.

Where people talk of pulp fiction, Stephen King openly describes his book The Green Mile as just that. Yet it is an exceptional story with many thought provoking themes.

making children read a badly written book penned by two c list has-been celebrities is not conducive to encouraging a love of reading.

Hahaha by your measure we might as well stop reading because we know all the letters in the alphabet. Maybe no need to listen to any music either or just listen to any old track because I’ve heard all the notes now 🤣

Depends on the school of thought but I seem to remember it's between 3 and 7 core stories that all stories are derived from

Maybe it's because a "pulp" book might actually appeal to children more, pulp is literally just mass made for the public. Getting children to read anything is a bonus. And a gateway then to them reading more

Don't they say there are only a handful of actual different story themes across time and cultures.

But I 'm baffled at the determined defence of celebrity pulp books. As a minimum, in school, I would like to think English teachers have enough passion for literature to steer children towards some really good books.

By this point all stories are "derivative"
There may be new ways to tell them but at heart they are all the same

I didn’t say they were studying it - I said it was being promoted by English teachers… which it is.

there are so many excellent contemporary writers who are not celebrities but who craft interesting, imaginative and well-written books for YP. Seems a missed opportunity to me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is a form time reading book NOT a book they are studying in English.

It has been recommended by history teachers in US. Had lots of conversations with English teachers about some are strangely wedded to a not very good book.

Indeed.

But then my English teacher had never heard of the Grapes of Wrath and told me off only writing two book reviews the half term I read that (aged 12) . My mum had to go in with a copy! I was a voracious reader but even so it's a hefty book to get through.

It seems the English teacher would have preferred me to have read 6 Sweet Valley High books like my friend

can’t understand why anyone is defending the English department of a secondary school promoting a book to a whole year group that has a highly derivative plot and is ‘written’ by a former CBeebies presenter and a pop star… This is what I would be complaining about.

I was checking out books from the horror section in the library from around aged 12, They were worse than some 18 rated films to be honest but I loved reading horror along with mills and boon, which also wasn't suitable. We read Animal Farm in school, I found that quite a sad read but historical literature is what is always read in school, or was.

I would say Eve of Man is written for teenagers.

You are being so dramatic.