My Ds has brought this poem home from school and been told to learn it. Please come and give me your thoughts on wether I should speak to the school.

[MTPurse]

As the title says, Ds has came home from school today with a Poem to learn, He has to learn it to be read out between a group of them(apparently he was chosen to read it as he is good at drama/being dramatic).

This is all I know, I have no other info on what it is about and why he has to learn it yet

Now I am not into poetry at all so maybe I just don't 'get it' but I really think this is completely unsuitable for Children due to the context. I am not a strict parent at all but Guns , Knives, Swords and Violence have no part in my family life and I will not allow my ds to play cod and stuff like that, in fact we have had numerous arguments about this.

Personally, I get the humour in it and think it would be fine on a staffroom wall but aibu to think it is not suitable for children?

Here is the poem:

The Lesson

Chaos ruled OK in the classroom
as bravely the teacher walked in
the nooligans ignored him
his voice was lost in the din

'The theme for today is violence
and homework will be set
I'm going to teach you a lesson
one that you'll never forget'

He picked on a boy who was shouting
and throttled him then and there
then garrotted the girl behind him
(the one with grotty hair)

Then sword in hand he hacked his way
between the chattering rows
'First come, first severed' he declared
'fingers, feet or toes'

He threw the sword at a latecomer
it struck with deadly aim
then pulling out a shotgun
he continued with his game

The first blast cleared the backrow
(where those who skive hang out)
they collapsed like rubber dinghies
when the plug's pulled out

'Please may I leave the room sir? '
a trembling vandal enquired
'Of course you may' said teacher
put the gun to his temple and fired

The Head popped a head round the doorway
to see why a din was being made
nodded understandingly
then tossed in a grenade

And when the ammo was well spent
with blood on every chair
Silence shuffled forward
with its hands up in the air

The teacher surveyed the carnage
the dying and the dead
He waggled a finger severely
'Now let that be a lesson' he said

Roger McGough :

Zenaria please calm down.

Sickening is an overstatement fr a poem which was written in the 80's before a time of school shootings. It is not making light of murdering Children (well it is but its satire). You don't have to like it but suggesting the poet is some sort of sicko who gets his kicks writing about killing kids is way ott

I agree with the OP. Not appropriate - especially for a 10 year old! There are a million poems out there that could have been used, why this one??? Glorifying violence - in this day and age do we really need more of that? No thanks.

It doesn't glorify violence.

Whoa no I would not be happy with that at that age! Compare it to film certification. Graphic violence would not feature in a 12 let alone U or PG!! Speak to head asap.

is it snooty to say it's not
Glorifying violence?

Chn at my DDs school are not allowed to make guns from lego so I don't see how it is appropriate to learn such a violent poem .I would not let my child learn this, end of.

Out of order. I bet lots of parents complain. Reading it is bad enough but making chn recite it sounds sick to me.

How bloody ridiculous. Written texts are not the same as violent films.

I don't want my 10 yr old reading violent texts. She would have nightmares!

in fact I think the imagination is worse than visual violence in some cases. The thoughts stay with you. I don't watch depressing things or horror for the same reason and I am 45!

Stick to your 'guns' (pardon the pun) OP. You are right imo. It doesn't matter how others bring their chn up. Do what is right for you. I'd feel exactly the same.

To respond to the comment above, I made no reference to the author. I know nothing of the poem or poet, except what was written above. However, the study of the poem is being done in today's society, which unfortunately, does have to deal with mass murders in schools. And therefore, I find such a poem being studied at such a young age, disgusting.

It's disturbing. Even more disturbing that it is being studied in a child's safe place, school. Shocked.

It's a grim piece of writing and I can't see any redeeming factors in children learning it.

When I was that age we had to learn and recite '30 days hath November', a far more useful poem.

I quite like the Paul Revere lesson plan. Might nick that for my year 7s (mixed ability, utterly bonkers).

I'm currently teaching in a part of the world where we're bussed in, the buses are checked for bombs before we're allowed on site & we have occasional lockdown classroom drills.

Not using The Lesson in these circumstances, although I've certainly enjoyed teaching it in the past.

How on earth are you supposed to learn that by heart?

And he's 10? 10?

Ridiculous.

He should memorize this instead:

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teachers! leave the kids alone!
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! teacher! leave us kids alone!
All in all you're just a another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just a another brick in the wall.

-smooth guitar solo-

"Wrong, do it again!"
"Wrong, do it again!"
"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. how can you
Have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"you! yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

you can be a poetry lover and still find this poem, no matter how well written, a failure in the modern age. It fails as a comic poem - which is how it is intended - because many of us now feel the subject matter no longer provokes laughter, as real school massacres are reported with depressing regularity on the world news. This is involuntary, by the way - no-one is setting out to be a spoilsport or po-faced. Different ages find different things funny and attitudes are inevitably conditioned by the events of the time.

This.

The poem was first published in the 70s.

Satire is all about context, timing, and people's attitude to the subject matter. Which, in this case, has moved on considerably from where it was more than 40 years ago.

Yes, there is violence in Shakespeare, in WWI poetry etc. too. But those things are taught in context, with an understanding of the world from which they emerged, with the frameworks of reference in which they were meant to be understood.

You can't just pull a poem like this out of your pocket and expect people to fall about laughing. People who do that are fundamentally misunderstanding the mechanisms of satire as an artistic tool, the very thing they're trying to use to defend this poem from the ignorant naysayers.

Which is ironic in its own way.

It was written as satire, but the satire no longer works because the precise thing he describes (gun violence in the classroom) is now sadly all too common.

And yes, there's alliteration and hyperbole but if a primary teacher can't find another poem to teach alliteration and hyperbole, it's a bad do.

So the satire no longer works, the imagery could be disturbing and the alliteration is very obvious. Not much to recommend it.

The teacher should choose another poem.

Actually toffeeboffin, the lyrics to The Wall are included ib the same unit of work as The Lesson.

Well, they were at my last school. Can't recall where we pinched the Scheme of Learning from - it wasn't boring enough to be DofE, so probably www.teachit.co.uk or TES.

Satire should always be studied in the context in which it was written.

The idea of finding it remotely funny is just ludicrous. I would go mad if this poem were used at my DC's school. Agree that in the '70's it might have been more of a remote concept, sadly not so now. I would never ever have found it amusing though it's just horrible.

I agree snowy And yes before anyone asks, I do understand satire

I have name changed for this. I am absolutely not a pearl clutcher but that is a horrible, horrible poem to give to children. I say this as someone whose child actually did have a bullet put in their head at Dunblane primary. Reading that poem made me feel physically sick.