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?

There is no such thing as 'wasting time' by reading a book.

With a few honourable exceptions, of course.

Yes I was responding to Gnu

Pengggwn* when I was 15 we had to compare Kestral For a Knave with the first chapter of Hard Times for GCSE coursework. I took in my 1896 copy of Jane Eyre and (privately, I wasn’t about to stick my neck out in front of the other kids, the horror!) asked if I could instead use Jane’s experience at Lowood School depicted in the novel as my comparison as I let I could write a better essay. I had at that point visited Haworth and the Bronte museum multiple times and read all the Bronte’s, a few more accessible Dickens novels and some Hardy. And Austen of course, many many times. I likes collecting older copies of these books as I loved history and ‘old things’. And was lucky enough to live near the wonderful Barter Books! I’m no prodigy, I just had a particular interest and passion in history. I might not have grasped all the meanings/themes but I got enough out of them to make it worth reading them at 14-15. Frankly my reading at ages 13-20 was far better than it has been most my adult life. I read NOTHING now! Bloody kids.

Buglife

That's definitely impressive. I still think 14/15 is very different to 11/12, but obviously people surprise you all the time!

I had a bit of an obsession to be honest. I think Austen is very accessible but you get the jokes more when you are older and for example I side more with Mrs Bennet now and think Lizzy was very naive in not really grasping the tenuousness of her situation! I know I was reading Austen at 12 because I can date it exactly from September 1995 when BBC P&P came out and my life honestly changed overnight. I’d been reading teenage crap like Sweet Valley and Point Horror since I was 9 and suddenly I was entranced and had somewhere to channel my advanced reading. I was a fairly average student but reading was a passion.

gnu I know I understood them. I can remember in depth discussions I had with more knowledgeable people when I was still primary age. And the librarian (literature graduate) was nearly always the one to recommend books to me. Or in the case of animal farm told me I wouldn't like what happened to Boxer, and to leave it till I was older. (Animal mad pony club child, instead I stuck to non- fiction about the Russian revolution, some of which was quite brutal but less distressing to me then than the animal perspective) Again, I wasn't the only child/ early teen she did this with.

peng I don't disbelieve you. I just find it odd. If I was under the illusion I was in some way gifted at literature at that age then it would follow most dc couldn't fully understand. Whereas even at secondary where I was an extreme outlier and capable of running rings round most staff, I was aware that at a decent school, with a qualified teacher, I was nothing more than average top set ability at literature. So I would have assumed that personal taste aside, every school would have plenty just as capable.

Although I suppose the Internet has made adult Classics less of a go to choice. For most of us when you'd exhausted the childrens section at the library, along with anything else you could get hold of from family, friends, nearest bookshop, the adult classics were the logical next step. Whereas we now have a generation of teens who have grown up able to access any out of print book they want, either immediately by download or prime next day delivery. No 'what can I read till the next batch of books turns up at the library'. So maybe it is more unusual to try adult Classics now.

Not RTFT, so don't know if anyone else has suggested this, but has she tried The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken? No sex or swearing, but very gothic atmosphere.

Okay I take that back. I still think she would enjoy it, but that strange website rates only the movie not the book and from their description the movie isn't particularly faithful to the book. They also classify it as 12+ despite the film being a PG sigh...

Thehogfather

No, they don't.

If anyone wanted an update then I went and spoke to dd's teacher after school today and she didnt seem very willing to have a discussion and make any compromise. I pretty much got told that she wouldnt recommend that I allow dd to watch or read material that is targeting for other 10's at home and said that even from dd's creative writing it was evident she had been reading 'innapropriate' content which is what sparked her concern on what book dd was reading, she then pointed out a page where dd had written: 'Martha leant across the school table kissing her husband with delight, all 3 children simultaneously proclaimed 'EWWW' at their parents thoughtless PDA' Doesnt seem inappropraite to me but obviously we have different standards. I am now probably just going to leave it and find books from the website as I dont want to cause a problem but I am slightly concerned that as this is the teachers first year having her own junior school class and she has only taught in a primary school before that she doesnt have the same experiance to be able to judge what is appropriate for a 10 year old.

Martha leant across the school table kissing her husband with delight, all 3 children simultaneously proclaimed 'EWWW' at their parents thoughtless PDA'

Surely you jest? Surely?! If not then...

Get real OP

'Martha leant across the school table kissing her husband with delight, all 3 children simultaneously proclaimed 'EWWW' at their parents thoughtless PDA'

Clearly the wrong books. What's wrong with parents PDA?

And clearly she isn't developing intellectually by reading those books.

I am slightly concerned that as this is the teachers first year having her own junior school class and she has only taught in a primary school before that she doesnt have the same experiance to be able to judge what is appropriate for a 10 year old.

What is your experience of 10 year olds, then?

Clearly the wrong books. What's wrong with parents PDA?

Nothing? It was creative writing, she was writing a story about made up characters.

Given the way the teacher is trying to dictate this child's literary tastes, I'd be inclined to get really subversive and try her on Nineteen Eighty Four.

Thehogfather Yes maybe teenage books have made the classics less common for kids to choose themselves.

Sounds like discretion is the better part of valour here ... especially if the teacher is trying to mark her creative writing down as being "inappropriate".

Wasn't Caitlin Moran ludicrously precocious and published very young ?

I wonder what the OPs DDs teacher would make of James Joyce ?

And no way is the OPs DDs creative writing inappropriate. Does the teacher think kids don't see their parents kissing?

Martha leant across the school table kissing her husband with delight, all 3 children simultaneously proclaimed 'EWWW' at their parents thoughtless PDA

Wtf is inappropriate about that? It's a kiss

alpineibex

That was the only example she could find and she did say that it wasnt the best example but that dd's writing often made referance to more adult topics and explained situations that she can't imagine her ever reading in a childrens book so obviously came from teen books or films. She also she said the abbreviation and use of the term PDA wouldn't be found in a book written for children.

What is your experience of 10 year olds, then?

I'm going to argue that, as the owner of this particular one, she knows a damn sight more about her tastes and abilities than the teacher.

I didn't even realize books had an age rating..I mean, I would not send a 10 year old in with Stephen King or something, but if its the likes of twilight or something, I don't really see the problem.