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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to give stop DD1 doing her homework?

65 replies

flippymcflipster · 09/11/2011 21:24

DD1 (14) has got homework for PSHE/citizenship.
They have to bring in different newspapers and to stop duplicates teacher told class what papers to buy. (at random I'm presumming - I understand that completely)
DD1 asked if she could swap with someone - no they cant.
DD1 then said that she can't buy the paper - teacher said of course you can, get your parents to buy it. Then wouldn't hear anymore.

I know it is for school and stuff. But I just can't do it.

AIBU to give her a note and say that the paper will not be bought
Or
AIBU to tell DD1 to swap even though the teacher said not to

Because quiet frankly I will not start buying the Daily Mail now after so many years of (my whole family) refusing too (we do not entertain that paper in my family ) just because a teachers says it needs to be bought.
IAMBU aren't I ?

OP posts:
worraliberty · 09/11/2011 22:10

Just give her the money or tell her to take it out of a her pocket money...it's only a few pence.

You describe her as 'a little activist'...yet she didn't speak up or have a word in private with the teacher after class? Confused

On the other hand, if it means that much to her and she really is 'a little activist'...she won't mind turning up without it and explaining why, will she?

I would think she'd positively enjoy that Smile

DioneTheDiabolist · 09/11/2011 22:11

I don't think that YABU, but I'm afraid that just this once you will have to do it. Send DD into the shop to buy it. Remember you are doing it for educational purposes. After all, our children should be taught that it is a load of bigotted, misogynistic, racist shite. You never know, in the future one child might pick it up in a cafe, read it and think that it is true (shudder).

Console yourself that what you are doing DM is the opposite of investment.

BrikSchittHaus · 09/11/2011 22:11

do you live near a train station or london?

The Metro and Evening Standard are also owned by the bastard Daily Mail - and they be free, so your daughter could use and you'd be happy in the knowledge that you didn't pay actual money for the dross that they peddle?

In fact if she is a mini activist she could use this to help criticise the content.

Presumably the homework is to support critical thinking ie the ability to understand bias and bullshit and not believe everything that you read.

AnotherEmptyNest · 09/11/2011 22:12

Go to a neighbour's paper recycling container and see what's in it.

FredFredGeorge · 09/11/2011 22:14

YANBU it's utterly ludicrous homework for a citizenship class. Maybe for a toddlers learn how to go shopping class. Buying newspapers is not homework!

And certainly being forced to support organisations and businesses you find distasteful is wrong.

Ellefabulosa · 09/11/2011 22:19

I'd buy it and help her understand what about it is that stops you buying it. Draw her attention to the style of journalism - presumably that's the point of the exercise.

Original poster
flippymcflipster · 09/11/2011 22:20

worra as I said she tried but teacher cut her down. and she probably felt very cut after teacher not allowing here to say anything so didn't stay behind (she also had PE straight after on other site)
She would enjoy it - but that would still require buying it.
brik no where near London but the metro..hmmm could get DH to pick one up on his way to work.

OP posts:
ElaineReese · 09/11/2011 22:22

I pretty much never say YANBU when it's parents/teachers, but here I feel I must. The teacher should really be able to organize a lesson on this without asking kids to buy the Daily Fail.

blackoutthesun · 09/11/2011 22:22

no you can't do it

the daily mail is evil, i've seen the damage it has done

troisgarcons · 09/11/2011 22:27

O/T ... does MN hate the DM coz it used to have a piss taking weekly round up of MN twuntishness (not to mention of course the pressure applied from the all-lads-together-in-the-media and Geraldines hubby is Guardianista?)

lurkerspeaks · 09/11/2011 22:30

Indeed interesting lesson but daft way to go about doing it.

My sis. teaches citizenship and she pesters all of her beloved relations for about two weeks to collect comparative newspapers (although with my parents around - 3 papers / day and 4 on Saturdays you don't actually have to go very many other places!).

lurkerspeaks · 09/11/2011 22:32

MN hates the daily wail because it is full of right wing twaddle, hates the public sector and is written for people who think they are clever but aren't.

I didn't know they parodied MN as I've not read it fully for many a long year.

In my family/ social circle the biggest insult (remember my mother reads the damn thing) is 'reads the daily wail and believes it'.

iggi999 · 09/11/2011 22:41

You see I would look at this as an opportunity - one DM purchased, chance to influence 20/30 young people to never buy it through critical analysis of its content!
I wouldn't want to let anyone swap without a great reason (and the teacher never got to hear a reason, I think) as it might start everyone off swapping and defeat the purpose of assigning papers.

zipzap · 09/11/2011 22:48

Do you think there's another DM reading household where they're having the argument 'I can't believe they're making me buy the guardian!!!'

And that the teacher has deliberately chosen ones she thinks the kids wouldn't normally read at home? Grin

Trills · 09/11/2011 22:51

I agree with Iggi - reading about the same event in different papers (in a cafe is where you might do this in real life) is very very interesting and for a decent citizenship lesson you need to buy papers with different readerships and different editorial slants and different levels and kinds of shiteness.

mummymeister · 09/11/2011 22:53

Hmm arent there other more important things than this to take a stand on? its only a paper and if it is being discussed in class then either she buys it and takes it in and it is read or someone else takes it in and she reads it that way. surely the best way to show her why you hate it is to buy it and read it through with her. we did this with the sun. i don't let my kids watch any soaps but if she watched one in class or was asked to do it at home then this is all part of learning. sometimes you have read/see something to know why it is vile surely.

GalaxyWeaver · 09/11/2011 22:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

cory · 10/11/2011 08:38

She has presumably been asked to buy the paper to learn how to analyse it (not to learn how to buy a newspaper); that's not the same thing as buying it for family reading. To refuse would be similar to refusing to read extracts from Russian WW2 propaganda in the history class "because my family doesn't hold with Communism".

scaryteacher · 10/11/2011 08:48

The point is that the students should not be asked to buy it. I always used to reserve the old papers from the school library, or buy a variety myself (wincing as I paid for the Grauniad and the Mirror). Homework should not cost the students bar printing costs if they chose to print something out at home.

FredFredGeorge · 10/11/2011 08:49

cory no it wouldn't be the same at all - it would be the same as being asked to make a donation to the Communist Party (insert other personal objectional organisation) to enable you to criticise their literature. The problem is paying for it, not reading it surely?

PopcornMouse · 10/11/2011 09:05

YABU - surely the whole point of her buying it is so they can compare & contrast and thereby see how full of tosh the Daily Mail actually is? Thereby proving your point?

Grammaticus · 10/11/2011 09:11

I would never buy it either. But here you have to do it. Get on with it.

cory · 10/11/2011 09:19

I see what you mean, Fred, but if you are researching a subject you have to acquire the literature- which means paying for the stuff. How do you suppose academics get round this one? I know someone who has dedicated her life to investigating neo-nazism from the highest of motives (and receiving several death threats in the process); she could hardly do that very efficiently while refusing to acquire their literature.

Besides, isn't part of the point that the dd is at an age where she should be given the chance to make up her own mind about politics?

whoopeecushion · 10/11/2011 09:23

YABvU.

She's been asked to buy the Daily Mail. It's no hardship (financial or practical) to you. The discussion they are going to have might even encompass the reasons why you hate the Daily Mail. Particularly if your DD brings up these points herself.

What you are teaching your DD is that it's OK to be a pain in the arse and to defy teachers. The teacher is trying to collect up some newspapers for a discussion and you are refusing to take part. It is a newspaper FGS - you are acting as though she's been asked to slaughter a lamb herself. It is a wonder anything gets done in schools when they have to put up with such petty nonsense form parents.

I am not a DM reader! I don't like the journalism in the newspaper. However, I don't like children being encouraged not to join in and not to follow the instructions of a teacher. I think you are being unreasonable and you should allow your daughter to take part in this exercise without complaining.

BalloonSlayer · 10/11/2011 09:28

If DD really IS a "little activist" then I'd imagine buying it, then standing up and telling the class what she thinks of it and why will be a very good experience for her.

Is she really a "little activist" though, OP? "umm miss, I don't think I can buy this paper" doesn't sound very activist-like. Sounds more like "I'm scared of what my mum will say" to me.