Is the homework 'to research Ian McEwan suitable for an 11year old?'

[Jellybeanz1]

My daughters yr 7 class has started reading Ian McEwan's The Daydreamer ; for homework they have been told to research him. I then found my dh consoling my daughter as she was distressed with something that she had read re: The Cement Garden which comes up as a prominent feature when you google it. The review comes up straight away. It contain issues of incest (brother and sister). She has a db and I don't want to visualising this, even if she hadn't I wouldn't. Also a murdered parent under the floor. I thought Jaqualine Wilson had some tricky issues (which she has enjoyed). Should I write a few lines in her English book or a letter. She has just moved up to this school so I don't know any teachers yet. Is the Teacher BU to set this research with no warnings or is this what her age should be considering? It was only 6 months ago we signed the form for sex education. This seems to be progressing too far too fast.

I had read Hotel New Hampshire (and seen the film adaptation) by the age of ten! It didn't cause me any issues with my brother. Suspect it's the dead Mum in the basement that is the problem? Quite an emotive concept.

I suspect an oversight by the teacher. Perhaps a note to him/her as a warning?

Haha! YABU

Funny, on another thread today someone questioned the suitability of Atonement for a 13 yo.

MaidofStars but Hotel New Hampshire has such a different feel to The Cement Garden... The Cement Garden is really dark, as is a lot of McEwan's early work.

Tbh, I can completely see why she was upset, but she is in secondary school now and I think perhaps it's as well that she confronts these sort of issues, it sounds like she has very supportive parents to help her through them. Kids do have to grow up pretty fast in Year 7.

lol

does he have a fabulously dark life history?

YABU. Of course it's suitable.

Yep must be the dead mum thing. Ok, its the incest I hoped I didn't have to deal with yet. Least its fictional. So I wont write the letter. It would probably take me all night to write anyway worrying about spellings and grammar to an English Teacher.

I teach Atonement at A Level. In general, he's thought of as an A Level writer. I have a colleague who doesn't like me teaching it due to the C-word.

I don't think it's unreasonable but I don't much agree with general 'Research' as a HW task tbh. Far better to say,'Find out X, Y and Z' about this. Otherwise, pupils are likely to just copy and paste a whole load of random nonsense anyway, without engaging with any of it.

The task is at fault because it's encouraged just sticking the name randomly into Google, or whatever, when you have no control over what might come up.

Yes Remus that is exactly the point. She would not have been steered that way if she had to focus in on specifics. Well said.

Erm yes? This is English lit at secondary school. These issues are explored and discussed

This is English lit at secondary school. These issues are explored and discussed

I'd be very interested to see a teacher using something like The Cement Garden for GCSE. It's no more shocking than Purple Hibiscus, that current GCSE staple, and a damned sight better written. Lean, tense, nothing like as leery as the OP's summary implies. I read it shortly after it was published (I guess I was about 15) and was knocked out by it. I re-read it recently expecting either to think it was juvenilia or be embarrassed at my young self's enthusiasm; I was wrong on both fronts. McEwan's later work leaves me stone cold, but I'd love to be 15 and reading his early stuff again.

First Love Last Rites was the one we were all reading on the recommendation of our English teacher{a nun}!!

Personally, I don't think Ian McEwan is any more appropriate for a year 7 child than GTA.
In your shoes, I'd be complaining to the head.
Can I just add, that in the primary I worked in until very recently, parents complaints about book content were taken very seriously, and it is worth making sure that the school are aware of your feelings on the issue.Better still if you can get other parents to back you up.

You do know that at secondary school they have to cover certain texts.?.. This is not primary. A totally different kettle of fish

Considering the content of a lot of Ian McEwan's early work (inc. The Cement Garden) I agree with you. I am quite surprised at your DD's school and I would have been upset if this had happened to my DD. I am guessing it's perhaps a newly qualified or young childless teacher who just doesn't 'get it'?

He is one of my favourite writers, but his work is completely unsuitable for 11 year olds.

BTW the dead Mum under the cement wasn't murdered! Not that this makes it any less disturbing, probably.

Thanks AuntySib, my dd is a mature girl so I imagine others dc would be equally or more shocked. The damage is done now. There's a pizza party for her form on Thurs I think I see what other parents thought.

The Daydreamer is a stunning book about and featuring a child and his imagination - it' s a surprisingly child-friendly book for those who only know McEwan's 'adult' work. I still remember, about 20 years on, reading the chapter where the protag. swaps consciousness with a baby - the sheer overwhelmingness of everything, yellow so yellow the only thing to do is to taste it. Those few pages should be compulsory reading for all who have forgotten how it feels to be a baby.

Researching - ie printing off a wiki page - the context of a book, its author's other works, sounds ok to me, the teacher will be guiding them through what they find surely?

Better still if you can get other parents to back you up.

GCSE Maths, module 3. Probability. Q1. Ten parents arrive in a teacher's office to complain about a book. What is the probability that any of them have read it?

The book - The Daydreamer - is absolutely fine. It's nothing like his other work in content and is often taught in KS3.

The homework though was lazy. Like Remus said, an open-ended 'go research' just encourages cutting and pasting. And it's not like McEwan himself is that interesting (or yet iconic) an author as, say, Shakespeare, or the Brontes.

englishteacher78 That's somewhat ironic, no, given how use of the C word is a plot device by McEwen to deliberately shock :)

"And it's not like McEwan himself is that interesting"

Oh, I don't know. The story of his relationship with his brother is fascinating.

I had to read a Child in Time for A Level and hated it. And the teacher telling us that almost every phrase was a 'sexual metaphor'. Lovely. I also read the Cement Garden etc to read other books by the author and found it fairly awful. Depressing stuff. Why bother writing if everything you write is miserable. Oh yes, its well written miserable so gets you a good income from schools because you make the A Level syllabi.

On Chesil Beach might be quite an eye-opener for Y7!!