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 :

I'm so sorry
And I completely agree with you.

Dunblanemum I am so, so sorry. I visit Dunblane regularly and I often think of the children. X

Horrible poem .

dunblanemum I cannot imagine how you must have felt seeing that, how anyone can defend it is totally beyond me. and so many hugs for you .

It's a powerful poem and very anti violence if you read it properly.

Like many of you, I think this poem is completely unsuitable to be studied at school - for any age group. I like many of Roger McGough's poems, but recent tragic events have made this one seem quite sick! I don't believe it can be read in an ironic way. Its "message" is far too sophisticated for OP's child's age, who would only see the violence.

It is totally ironic. Probably best suited for secondary school age children though. I would have much loved to have studied something like this that is ironic, moving and thought provoking rather than Wordsworth and his stupid bloody daffodils.

Well isn't this thread a big ole pile of hysteria and chips

This was one of my favourite poems as an 8 year old. My parents bought me a beautiful book of childrens poetry and this was in there. I still have the book and it's something I hope to pass onto my kids one day. This book also had the poem about the jolly hunter getting shot by his own gun (jolly old safety catch not jolly on) and the memorably murderous version of Roald Dahls 'Cinderella'.

The bit about the headteacher 'nodding understandably' still makes me grin.

I am not a psychopath, or traumatised. It's a significant piece of modern English poetry. Personally I found the (non-satirical, based on actual, horrific events) war poetry they taught us at 14 much more disturbing.

I suspect it is many teachers' inner most desires which they don't even admit to themselves, sometimes so perhaps not something a teacher should hand out. Also 10 is a bit young for that. It's pretty violent stuff.

Let the children spend an hour grilling the teachers about how the poem makes them feel - could be a good lesson.

I don't like it. There's been too many incidents of children being shot in schools, I just don't find it at all funny to talk about killing kids in a school

Framey you're taking it much too literally!

There hasn't been any hysteria really. In fact it's been pretty balanced and many of those who feel it is an inappropriate poem for their children or schools have very valid reasons. Lockheart did you read the post a couple up from yours.

I'll as myself to the 'no, don't like it' camp. Some primary school children might be fine with it but chances are there'll be a while bunch who aren't.

This poem is supposed to be shocking, that's the whole point. Violence has always been used as a way to command respect, a way to "teach a lesson" to those who we feel deserve it but what lessons does it teach the young? This poem takes this view to the extreme in order to highlight the dangers of the message we teach the young about violence. Of course it does not advocate teachers killing children - the image is used to shock. The way silence is described as shuffling forward in surrender at the end is very moving in my opinion, it shows that no-one is left to learn anything. Violence just destroys, it doesn't "teach".

The poem's rhyme format is one traditionally used with light hearted poems but it creates a jarring effect when used with quite disturbing imagery. This is what creates our response of "am I supposed to find this funny?". By doing this, the poet draws our attention to the deeper meaning behind the poem.

I wouldn't teach this poem to under elevens personally and I certainly wouldn't teach it in a school where the imagery would be too close to home. But for the rest of us, whether we like the poem or not, should try to appreciate what the poet is doing before we dismiss it. Good poetry gets you thinking, moves you, sometimes shocks you (Wilfred Owen for example) and you can't teach a powerful anti violence message if you wax lyrical about sunbeams and ponies.

I don't know what poetry my daughter will learn about when she's ten or eleven but I really hope that it excites her and moves her and makes her love and understand the power of poetry.

But it doesn't scan. I mean if he is such a brilliant poet, he could have made it a bit better, tecnhically?

It's the sort ofthing a ten year old could write. I used to write crap like that. Not so violent, but just, well, badly scanning, facile, rubbish that rhymed.

But it works for children - I read it as a child and I still love the bit about garrotting the girl with the grotty hair, it is a great use of language. The Mersey poets were all about accessible street poetry and have led to many people accessing poetry who would have previously thought it wasn't for them.

and many others turning away from poetry because it no longer is for them, I suppose!

I know all about the street poetry thing. Some of it was really good. This is just a really poor example.

'I suspect it is many teachers' inner most desires which they don't even admit to themselves'

Er... I really doubt that

I love this poem. Have it in a book I've had since I was about 6 or 7yrs I think. I always thought it was funny, but most of his stuff is. My son loves quite a few of his poems at age 7 too. Perhaps the younger kids can see the funny side as it is way over the top but as you get older you see the reality of some high schools as mentioned above and it take the humour away. Perhaps that will be one of the discussion points though.

No poem wil be popular with everyone, but that doesn't mean it has failed as a poem.

I don't consider myself to be ' the lowest common denominator' and am generally relaxed about shit like this but I would be v unhappy if my 10 year old came home with this. It's horrible, and not in a Roald Dahl way at all. So, so sorry dunblanemum.

Pippa there is a lot of technical devices in it but the simple rhyme and rhythm is deliberately used (and subverted) because it mimics the style of poetry usually taught in schools.

Just read this to my DD age 10, year 6. She laughed and said 'It is poetry, it is not serious'.

I think they get it! YABU!

Im gona get flamed for this but...it just seems like a scare tactic to me to get a bunch of ten year olds (or older) to behave.

I've read this poem to a couple of people (mum, sis, friends) and all of them have been horrified and all have said (separately) they'd be up the school like a shot.

Like i said earlier in the thread, i would'nt be happy if one of my dc's came home with this and i sure as hell would never want to explain to my ten yr old dc what garrotted means.

So so sorry Dunblanemum for what you've been through truly horrific and absolutely heartbreaking

How is it anti- violence genuine question