Stupid school rule?

[upsideup]

DC's school recently introuduced an hour of silent reading per week, dd absolutely loved this (DS doesn't but it has encouraged him to read more). Untill now they have been taking in a book from home, DD10 who spends hours reading for pleasure anyway takes in the book shes reading at home. I dont choose her books and I am also not strict about what she reads, was already aware that some of the books she enjoys were targeted at an age range slightly above hers.
We have had a letter home saying that dd's book this week was rated as 14+ so is not suitable to be read at school and I should send her in with a book suitable for her age so under 10's as teachers are not going to be closely monitoring what books the children are reading. That is ridiculous right?
She had not told us this all week as shes worried shes in trouble with the teacher but her book was taken off her and she was given a random book from the libary by the teacher which is not the sort of thing she likes and was too 'babyish' for her so she spent the whole lesson doing nothing.
To be clear the books she is reading are young teen fiction books, not gory or sexual true crime books, theres maybe mentions of kissing or mild swearing but nothing harmful or frightening for a 10 year old to hear, mine atleast and as its silent reading and not being read aloud surely its nobodies business what shes reading and it should be mine and her dads decision if its suitable or not for her, not the teachers?
We are going stuggle to find a book aimed at under 10s that she enjoys and I also have know idea how to find out what age rating a book has and surely its just a reccomendation to what age group may enjoy the book not a strict rule?
I can see the benefit of quietly reading at school and definately not one of the many parents who complained when the silent reading was introduced but what benefit is forcing her to read a book that she dosnt enjoy and is below her level? Shouldnt she be encouraged to challenge herself and have an enjoyment for reading not punished?

Do your schools do the same? AIBU to want to challenge this stupid rule?

It's not for you to have to send your DD with a book from home. As school is responsible for making sure that 'unsuitable' reading material is not read in school, then it is their responsibility to offer your DD a range of books appropriate for extending her reading.. When challenged like this, my DD's school collected a whole shelf of books for her. When she completed a book, she suggested which children might enjoy it as well; e.g.'girls who like horror and can read silently'. There are plenty of G&T book lists available for children reading ahead of their age.

PPs have established school is right to monitor what is read in school. An able reader will have no problem with several books on the go at once, so OP should just help DD find something suitable to take to school. Go to your public library and use the expertise there.
My personal suggestions, off the top of my head, would be older authors such as Penelope Lively's The Ghost of Thomas Kempe; or something like Stig of the Dump. Maybe Rumer Godden's The Diddakoi. Or Five Children and It.
Upthread someone did suggest Neville Shute. Am not so sure... have only read A Town Like Alice and they crucify a prisoner of war... Dont think that is suitable for OP's DD...

blue part of having the maturity to enjoy adult humour/ content is also knowing there is a time and a place to share it. So we didn't have any problems in that area. Ime those tend to come from dc who can only access material behind their parents backs, and therefore don't properly understand it, or understand they shouldn't be passing the problem page of some low brow mag around the playground because it features the word sex.

I'm also wondering which South park you've watched, can't say I remember any plots, let alone recurrent themes on anal sex or bestiality. She enjoyed the satirical take on issues.

Then again I decide what is suitable for my child at home based on her as an individual, not how her chronological age correlates to some arbitrary guidelines of what is appropriate.

And surprisingly, your approval, or lack of, isn't something I give a flying one about.

Also meant to add Anne Fine as a recommendation as nobody has mentioned her yet

I question the entire notion that there is ever, ever unsuitable reading material. I take that back, if your daughter were reading the Nazi Paedophilic Sexy fun time series, yes unsuitable. But a teenage novel aged when aged 10? Ridiculous that anyone is worried about that corrupting children. I bet all you calling YABU are just saying that because their children have taken after their thicko parents and wouldn’t be able to read it.

thehogfather The episode titled Chicken Fucker is, unsurprisingly, pretty heavy on the bestiality. Also from the top of my head there is another episode where someone is sucked off by a pony. Showing this material to a 7 yr old is in no way progressive or cool and in no way indicates they are mature. It indicates only that they aren’t being kept safe from entirely inappropriate material by their parent.

Anne of green gables
little women
black beauty
a traveller in time
robisnhugh

blue where do I state I watched one titled chicken fucker? The two that stand out for me that we watched were one about Mr poo as Santa iirc, and the one about chef and racism. Mock the week probably had more unsuitable content than anything in South park. Maybe to you watching cartoons is so mentally stimulating you can't comprehend that others might not watch every minute of every series.

Rather bizarre ideas you have on parenting if you think I would allow content based on being perceived as cool or progressive. We don't all go round sharing our every parenting decision, let alone do so in the hope of being seen as cool. Don't judge my motives based on your own.

You also seem to be having some comprehension difficulties. Nowhere have I said that exposing dc to adult content is proof of maturity.

You're indicating quite a lot to me too, none of which is complimentary. Most of us are perfectly happy to accept rules for school, but come on, how pfb is it to want to preview billy Elliot to check if it's suitable at home? Babying dc to that extent is far from good parenting.

No wonder schools have such difficulty covering important aspects of history, or teachers get complaints about age appropriate literature with parents who believe that dc should be sheltered from billy Elliot, and that their personal decisions are the gold standard.

You seem to be mistaking South Park for a kids programme because it’s animated. There is not one episode made that is appropriate for a child let alone a 7 yr old. Every episode contains things such as bestiality, prostitution, sex, paedophiles etc etc and it is considered very adult in nature even by the standards of adult tv. Letting a 7 year old watch it is an absolute disgrace.

My DD is a reluctant reader and when she started secondary school they did a computerised test,her program didn't work and by the time it was fixed everyone else had finished and she got flustered.They had to choose books from the library in the band they were put in,DD ended up being given books like the second part of a trilogy but not the first part because it was in the wrong band,The Charlie bone series which she had read and we had at home.
She was reading the Wildwood trilogy at home at the time so I sent her in with that,the teacher was not happy as the computer didn't have this books comprehension test.
Do DD was given a book from the library(that she'd already read),took the test then took her own book in again,she wasn't tested again.It is frustrating and all the more because she was a slow reader and we spent a lot of time finding books she would read.

Shoving things up arses as well is a common theme in South Park. But so long as you’re not babying your kids and their getting their necessary dose of satire aged 7

*they’re

It’s a ridiculous rule. Definitely challenge them on it. I would challenge on the basis that an advanced reader will be reading books that are designed for above their age group, so what is she learning reading a book she is not interested in and is nit educational? Perhaps they could have the advanced readers sit separately if they are worried about them morally corrupted the other children!!
Alternatively, when I was at school we picked books from the library which presumably were censored in some way as suitable for school and they were all colour coded for difficulty. You just moved up through the books as you progressed, there were no age limitations. This would avoid the issue if children bringing in “unsuitable” books.

Have says that it’s really all a little ridiculous. If children want to share this stuff they could do it in the playground. It’s realky irrelevant whether they let your daughter read it in class. She could bring in any old book, at any time. The things my fellow pupils used to bring in!!!

Sorry thehogfather, BlueMirror is correct that south park is really extremely rude. Some of it is innuendo which a child will hopefully miss (though they'll be missing half the laughs), but even so seriously inappropriate. Whether they deem it appropriate to discuss in show and tell or not, the attitudes and language they're exposed to shape their own attitudes and language.

I think my irritation would be at least partly focused on the use of a US website to censor the reading of a British schoolchild. Americans worry about different things than Europeans. Generally they are much more relaxed about violence and much more hung up on sex. You can see this in game and movie ratings which at least have the advantage of being relatively consistent in that all movies and games are reviewed by the same organisation. The website the school is using is a US not for profit, and it's not at all clear how they categorise by age. I entered in books from our family bookcases to see whether I agreed with it's views and most of the books had not been reviewed/rated as they are mostly from the UK and published 5+ years ago. What would the school do then? It seems both lazy and not well implemented, and if it's a scheme aimed at encouraging readers by allowing them to bring in books from home then the guidance about what is not allowed should have been given out in advance and surely applied to all books brought to school not just this one hour.

My children took whatever books they were reading into school all the time in primary. They would have been most annoyed at having to have something different for school (especially if the alternatives weren't actually books they wanted to read). Most children seem to use their phones for entertainment, allowing them access to all sorts of stuff, some incredibly inappropriate. I can't imagine that the book the OP's dd is bringing in is of that much interest to her classmates, let alone risking their innocence in some way.

But do you think banning children who have a reading age above their actual age and understand more difficult language from reading any book that isnt targeting to 10 or under is benefitial? Would you think my dd should be allowed to read pride and predjudice at school for example or is the rule the rule?

The problem is probably two-fold:

1. The teacher may not have read Pride and Prejudice, or any other book you deem suitable for your child that is outside the age range, so she has no way of being confident that it is indeed suitable.
2. If you start making exceptions, other people want those exceptions applied to them too. So, if little Gemma is allowed to read Austen because it is in line with her ability, and little Bobby wants to read the Knife of Never Letting Go, the conversation with his parents is more difficult because now you're making an entirely subjective judgement about content, and now you're having to look individually at every book the kids bring in, which was what you wanted to avoid.

So yes, I'd argue the rule is the rule.

So the only solution then is not to tell any child or parent that the child can bring books into school. Only allow children to read pre approved books from the school library. Accept that some children will then read less unless you have a very well stocked library.

Don't use as your censor a non UK site whose reviewers may well have very different sensitivities to the parents that you are presumably trying to avoid complaints from. Or if you make this decision at least tell parents when you are introducing your new scheme that those are the rules you are putting into place.

I find the idea of a English teacher wanting to limit a young mind extraordinary! I remember my dds teacher having the opposite opinion in fact and asking me to buy a larger range of books for her to read. If you, as parents, are happy, and your daughter is devouring these books, I personally don't see a problem.
If I were in your position I would make an appointment to speak to the teacher. She may not back down but may have some suggestions you can compromise on.

Purplealienpuke

Nobody wants to limit young minds. That isn't the object of the exercise. Safeguarding is the first priority, over and above everything else. If that means a child isn't allowed to read according to their preference because their preference is inappropriate for their age, that is a shame.

nooka

It is a perfectly reasonable solution to say the child can bring books to school, but only within the preapproved age range. Why is that so difficult to do?

@geekone I have a a degree in English and am doing an MA in creative writing with a strong element of YA fiction. I know all about the Knife Of Never Letting Go. I have the box set upstairs and have read it several times. I also teach creative writing and English to kids in year 6 (aged 11) on the advanced reader programme. I am doing a "reading as a writer" assignment at the moment about the recognised theme difference towards age 9-11 kids and aged 11-13. At age 9-11 kids see it as a story about a boy that is trying to save a girl, then they try to save each other and both become murderers. At 11-13 they can start to pick out underlying themes such as loss of innocence, mistrust of authority, value of life etc. Both groups though understood that from the very first second they picked the book up that the knife was critical to the story because its mentioned on the cover. Kids are WAY more clever than people give them credit for.

3 of my 4 children excel at English and reading and have always been allowed to read whatever they wanted after I read about how young readers future vocabulary is heavily influenced by what they read. I am Writing is an art form. Its a scary beautiful escape and I am not going to police that. If a book is classed as YA , then my ten year old can read it. If she struggles to get into it, doesn't understand then I am sure she will put it down

fannyfelcher

Is there no book you wouldn't let your child read?

YANBU School has to ensure all reading material brought into school is age appropriate. Don't be upset as how would you feel if DD wasn't such an able reader and someone brought in a book more appropriate for teenagers. Get books on subjects she is interest in e.g. hobby, history, travel or some of the classics. Your DD can reading whatever she likes at home.

Pengggwn

It is a perfectly reasonable solution to say the child can bring books to school, but only within the preapproved age range. Why is that so difficult to do?

At the moment it is difficult to do, the guide the teachers using is an american site where the books are graded by parents and their children, lots of the books are american (and I'm not that keen on dd reading this exclusively) and many of the books we already own that I was not sure about are not even on the site. Books are not graded officially as for 10 and under (as far as I am aware) and it is completely limiting to say she can only read a book that she can find on this american website as being for 10 year olds.
Do you think its a fair suggestion that the teacher provides us (and any other parents who want is) a list of books that she sees suitable for able 10 year old readers? Instead of just throwing a book that doesnt even have chapters at her when her book according to this website says 10+ and that is without out notifying the children or their parents that they must have a book suitable for their age and giving them chance to correct that, up until that point the only rule we were aware of was that dd must bring in any book of her chocie and read silently for an hour.