to think Coram Boy is not a suitable book for year 7s

[vegetaria]

My 11 year old had night mares last night and is afraid to go to sleep tonight.

For anyone who doesn't know it is about a man who buys unwanted children in the UK in the 1700s, and sells them into slavery if they are above 5, or kills them by burying them alive if they are younger, and it describes several scenes of babies being buried alive and other harrowing events

Its the class book at the moment

How does it fit with the rest of the English curriculum?

I think it’s totally understandable you are upset if your child is upset OP, and you should talk to her teacher about how to manage that.

But you won’t help your case by making silly remarks like this. The mental health crisis in schools is caused by this being a uniquely difficult time to be a teen / post Covid / the enormous economic pressure on families

Most children would focus on the main characters rather than the gruesome back story. Otherwise the school wouldn’t read it.

I disagree with you actually, I think this sort of thing is more likely to be causing mental health problems. Being a teen and cost of living problems are nothing new have existed for hundreds of years, and covid lockdown helped as many young people as it harmed.

But this is something else/

We had to study "Day of the Locust" aged 15, where one child dies, just one. And it wasn't really deliberate. And it was handled so much more sensitively than this - no one had to be in the room when that scene was read or watched or discussed, and no one had to write about it, We knew where it fitted into the story, and we also knew it was fiction, whereas this is being forced on young children, and presented as historically accurate

All you posters saying talk to them about it and discuss the context... There is no point - that would just cause more distress.

OP, there are absolute atrocities happening on the other side of the world right now. Worse things happen every day in the real world. How will you cope if your daughter listens to the news today? You can’t shelter her forever. The approach by your old school seems ridiculous to be honest.

Coram Boy is very well written, prize winning historical fiction that is aimed at and appropriate for your daughter’s age group. While it is certainly hard hitting, I wouldn’t expect an average Year 7 to have this extreme a response to it. Unfortunately the events the book describes really did happen and Jamila Gavin (the author) uses the story to explore the treatment of poor and orphaned children in the nineteenth century. The story is told through the eyes of a child and is certainly not graphic or frightening. Is your daughter usually sensitive in this way? Does she have a very vivid imagination?

I’m an English teacher and if a child in my class were upset by something I am teaching, I’d want to know so I could address it. Please contact the teacher and let them know how your daughter is feeling. They can then adapt the lesson content to support your daughter. The book may well be mandatory on the curriculum for the whole year group, so the individual teacher might not have a choice over what they teach. But they can certainly be mindful about the passages they focus on in class and the content of activities to steer discussions away from what your daughter finds distressing.

I will say that this year in particular I have noticed a huge maturity shift in Year 7s - they are much younger emotionally than I am used to. It’s the covid effect, I think. I am teaching a book that’s normally taught in Year 6 because my lot can’t handle anything more grown up than that.

I read it recently as I didn’t want to let dd (10) just read it. I decided she wouldn’t like it and it would be better to wait. In the library it was in the teenage section.

Horrible things happen but there are no graphic descriptions. It’s probably a book that some 10/11 are fine with but not others. At this age it can be hard to find books that are ‘difficult’ but with appropriate subject matter.

Of course atrocities happen, but we don't have to force them down the threats of 11 year olds

It’s age appropriate but you won’t listen to anyone who says otherwise

This

I'm almost 50 and this would disturb me.

For many readers if a book is well written it makes one's imagination conjure up scenes far, far worse than anything that could come out of a film studio so it's irrelevant how graphic something is.

Gothic horror is on the curriculum for year 7/8. I'm unfamiliar with the book (too old to have studied it) but dystopian fiction is popular with the age group.

The weight of evidence is against you here - the pressures on teenagers at present are regarded as unique, and lockdown has vastly increased the mental health issues of young people. Both these points are supported by plenty of data, it’s not a matter of opinion.

You have a sensitive child. Most children would cope with this book and many will get a lot from it, in terms of appreciation for literature, empathy, interest in history and understanding of an important era in history. By 11 children know that bad things happen in the world eg The Holocaust, The Black Death, Gaza right now.

Rather than try and reframe the world, just talk to the teacher about how to manage it, and talk to your daughter about context - try and move her focus from the grim background detail to the main characters, and underline this is a period of history long past.

My parents read Lord of the Flies at school. I don’t think you can attribute the current mental health crisis to children’s books. People have been reading children’s books with dark themes for years.

Reading further responses I'm now intrigued to find out more and yes, posters commenting about not shielding kids too much as real life is pretty horrific in some parts of the world, you are correct.

I think you are very wrong about it being well written - it might be, but that is meaningless. My son's cousin is currently in hospital with a collapsed lung, aged 9 months It is a big worry for him. He does not want to read about babies being thrown into graves while whimpering and with little fingers trying to find something to hold on to. His friend lost a sister to cot death. There are going to be children like this is every class.

My friends daughter read it 3 years ago, and remembers nothing at all about it other than the torture and murder of babies, and still cries about it

How well written it is really doesn't matter - the story is totally irrelevant, and this is completely inappropriate

What the fuck gives any teacher, school, governors education system the right to decide children have to be force fed this age 11 - and as to teachers thinking it can be done "supportively" - who do they think they are? They teach English! They know nothing about trauma, or Psychiatry!

We recently did one with Year 9 which contained a graphic description of sexual assault. I was quite reading it but luckily my group found it funny rather than disturbing.

There are loads of upsetting ones and while we would be hard pushed to find literature with no upsetting parts at all I do think schools should be mindful of their ‘audience’ so to speak. I have to admit I was disturbed as hell by the BBCs Gunpowder a few years ago; it actually looked fascinating but the torture scenes were so horrendous I just couldn’t get through it.

That’s upset me @EnidSpyton . I have to admit I haven’t read it but just to say in fairness it may not be the fault of the teacher. We are instructed by the trust as well. I really don’t think he should have to read it, it does sound upsetting.

I agree with you OP - I see no reason to force misery lit down the throats of 11 year olds.

Even when I was at school our reading list was extremely morbid, and it only made me dislike the books and wonder what was wrong with the people choosing them.

Don’t let him read/watch goodnight Mr Tom! On a serious note I would have thought that most 11 yo’s do have a level of maturity to be able to deal with Coram boy, although maybe not these days. They need introducing to unpleasant things gradually as they are a part of life and they will become more inquisitive about difficult subjects.

I was going to say that by that age they need to address some sad facts about the world, but I agree- it sounds horribly graphic. As an adult I would be traumatised!

It's one thing to read about this in a history book, but to have it described in a novel with the accompanying emotive language would be very strong meat for this age group, I think.

I agree with you totally. My 11yp son would be really upset by this.

It is quite disturbing that a group of year 9s find sexual assault funny!

I know what you say about teachers knowing their audience makes sense, but realistically all classes are going to have children in with babies in the family, including ill babies and dead babies. No child involved in any sort of relationship with a baby is going to want to read this book. No teacher is going to know which children have lost babnies in their families, or have babies with health worries in their families

yes, I am an adult, and I am left quite upset by reading this book

Not if done carefully. Young people need to understand that there is suffering in the world, both in the past and now, and it is our job as adults to help them learn how they manage their emotions in response to that.

I have often had pupils very moved by something we’ve read, or shocked, but the discussion that comes out of that is incredibly valuable and important. Pretending that death and suffering doesn’t happen is profoundly unhelpful - your old school did not do the pupils any favours with its approach.

Of course, if I know that a pupil has a specific history that will make certain books challenging for them, I factor that in to my teaching.

@vegetaria - it was the way it was written. I don’t think they found the idea of a sexual assault funny but any mention of a penis is amusing to kids this age. Plus, kids often laugh when they are nervous or feel awkward.

I was agreeing with you about knowing their audience: the point is we don’t. There is no way we can know exactly what is going to upset some kids and so some things are best left.