I object to my son being given reading books about drunk horses

[Reallytired]

He is five years old and reading stage 6 of the Oxford Reading Tree. He was given an ORT book called Rotten apples. Its about a horse which gets drunk by eating rotten apples.

My son has no concept of what it means to be drunk. He leads a sheltered life and for the time being I want to keep it that way.

I wrote in his reading record that I felt that the book he was given was not age approipate. His teacher has written back that it is impossible to know whether reading books that are sent home are age appriopate or not.

Personally I think this is bollox.

most schools will be very familiar with this story, to the point of boredom. Maybe they have never had a complaint and are unsure how best to handle this one

but fgs it was a horse. I very much doubt the book read

"dobbin had had a hard day in the fields.

so on his way back to his stable he called in at the applecart for a swift half.

There he met daisy the cow, sean the sheep and betsy and hetty the hens. They were all fucked off with work and decided to go out on the lash.

So they all plodded up to the pub and ordered several pints with whisky chasers.

After a few tiquila slammers, Dobbin started slurring his words, and when dipsy duck started coming on to him he smashed a pint glass over his head.

It was then that plod, the police horse arrived on the scene, and Dobbin was arrested and spent a night in the cells.

The next morning he awoke with the hangover from hell and swore to god he would never drink again."

Pinetree,

I'm a science teacher, and fermentation was the first thing I thought of

PMSL. An excellent re-write

is the title not 'the rotten apples', no mention of drunk?

I also thought fermentation for the same reason.

WannaBe - PMSL at that story, honestly!

Pete has a pipe.

Kate has a line.

See Pete sing.

Sing, Pete, sing.

See Kate go to rehab and lose modelling contracts worth billions while we all stand in awe of the over-hyped arsehole in the stupid hat because he writes poetry so his addiction is romantic, beguiling and sexy and also socially acceptable like we're in 18th century Paris ffs.

There's a small chance I got a leetle bit carried away there.....

the horse gets a bit dizzy and has to go and sleep - is it not something like that?

pmsl wannabe...now that would be reason to be shocked, lol....

perhaps they'd better not read this one scroll down a bit

I still remember watching one of Walt Disney's Animal movies, where all teh animals get drunk after eating rotten fruit somewher in the dschungle....

IIRC there are ORT reading books about burglery as well. (thwarted natch)

And floppy gets up to all sorts of dangerous behaviour when he has delusions about being 'wonder dog'.

Jeez, I never realised the series was so racy.

lol

dammit we don't get ORT - my 6 yr old is reading about a magic swan that gets a long line of people stuck to him

bring on the drunken horses, I say

Could that not risk injury if children try to repeat it??? Damn dangerous Swans.

mind you, I've never met anyone who has actually had their arm broken by an angry swan. Is this an urban Myth?

there's a well-known film which shows what happens to a herd of elephants when they eat fermenting meroula (sp? berries. It's a documentary - and the elephants get drunk. it's real, it's not rated 18 or anything - everything else about it is totally fine for hildren to watch - and drinking is actually quite a real part of life.

think iotas one

a magic swan that gets a long line of people stuck to him

sounds even more hysterical..

oh no - children will be afraid of swans - must ban it - how dare they depict such rare and beautiful animals in this way - shocking i tell you.

This is so funny
I teach my children about being dunk (me) first hand, so they are not shocked by their school books.

for mb - sopes discussion on arm-breaking swans here

You'd better steer clear of the Roald Dahl story 'Danny, the Champion of the World', too. It features Danny and his Dad soaking raisins in brandy in order to get pheasants drunk so they can be stolen more easily.

UANBU

Personally I don't have any problem with it - my dc have seen plenty of drunks

BUT if you don't want to deal with it during your quiet reading time together then you shouldn't have to, and as an ex-teacher of this age group myself, I think the teacher could have dealt with it better.

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