What age is this piece of writing appropriate for kids to read? Gothic/horror piece

[TheGreenWoman]

There's a debate going on, in a local parents FB page, about this piece of writing being offered to children in secondary school in an English lesson.

What age would you be happy for your child to read this?

poestories.com/read/blackcat?fbclid=IwAR21gYxZhroIrSYn13y7tVpA7oKroyGoJUOa5DisYEO_mx2a_WSrEMUQeqs

Bambini12 I don't censor books at home either. This thread is about literature in school where the child hasn't chosen the book and may be too embarrassed to speak up if they find a book disturbing to read.

Do you really think education shouldnt cover anything that a child might find disturbing?

I think children can study a range of literature and still avoid books that will give them nightmares.

I do think books are different to films. With books/literature, your imagination defines the limits of what you will see. Even if a scene is intended to be very graphic, if you're not open to it, you either skip past it, or your imagination doesn't take you there and limits the scene to a more muted scene that you can cope with.

Whereas, with film, you are seeing someone else's imagination. You can't avoid it, it's someone else's pace, someone else's tempo, someone else's atmosphere, their tension, you can't escape it, it's all their, shoved on the screen and spilling out of the speakers. All you can do is shove a pillow in front of your eyes and fingers in your ears.

Of course they can Cachailleacha. They could also study history by skipping anything upsetting, and geography without anything frightening (no earthquakes/volcanoes/tsunamis, famine or climate change) and religious education without encountering anyone with an opinion different to your own (having your beliefs challenged can be very disturbing).

It's just that you'd be left with a pseudo education.

Lougle I agree if you are reading books for pleasure. My DS will stop reading a book if he finds it scary. You can't just skip past a section of text or stop reading if you have to study a book for school though.

Can you not see that by skipping everything that a child might find upsetting means you'd barely be left with any content to teach, bar singing and painting which is still upsetting for the teacher when you have a class of 33 ten year olds

Uh uh. Not singing. Bright eyes. Nuff said.

It’s very grim. I think I’d say age 14. I think 12 would be too young. Even at 14 I’d warn them before beginning to read.