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

I think @BrassOlive's suggestion is very sensible.

The Foundling Museum itself is worth a visit.

I saw the play version of Coram Boy and disliked it. DH and I left at the interval. I thought the way the subject matter was handled was unpleasant (I am familiar with the history) and the Handel score was absolutely butchered.

I think as your son is year 7 and you have particular family circumstances, it's worth alerting the Head of Year/Head of KS3.

I did change year 7 History teaching somewhat one year for the benefit of a girl with a particular tragedy in her background. Ditching a whole theme book would be harder of course.

FWIW I totally agree with you.

there is plenty of impressive writing they could focus on, there is no need to read horror stories like this!

reading is a solitary sport and individually people can read what they like but as a film this would not have a 13 rating would it and at school the children do not get to put it down if they are distressed which is atrocious.

In the real world we wouldn’t force them to study a film they find disturbing or would we?

Update, the head teacher didn't know anything about this book until the complaints started coming in over the last day or two, apparently - very new, young and inexperienced head of English.

There will be no further lessons from this book and it is being taken out of the classroom for the rest of the week, so it can be "reviewed"

I guess just this HOD is just another victim of the wave of inexperienced teachers being promoted years too early as there are no candidates for the jobs. I'd lay odds they have never had a baby. I'd lay odds that they are from a privileged background thinking they are being "edgy" by introducing traumatic themes, without any understanding at all that most of their pupils have more traumatic themes in their real lives then this teacher has read about, and need no "introduction"

child is on their way to school, late, somewhat reassured, but very subdued. I think a lot of trust has been lost through this episode

Reading really is not a solitary sport. People - in all sorts of ways - share and discuss books with each other.

This happens in school in very obvious ways. It’s most definitely not individual reading and processing on your own.

But it happens in ‘the wild’. People join book groups. Just discuss books with friends. Go online and discuss books. TikTok is full of people very keen on discussing and analysing books. So are loads of other SM sites.

Goodness what a quick response from the school! And what an unsupportive head.

@NugatoryMatters
"Finding something funny in things is actually a fairly standard way that people approach difficult material."

I agree. But children at year 9 age reacting in this way to an age appropriate account of sexual assault would worry me-and I hope the teacher concerned addressed it rather than just thinking it was "lucky" they did....

what rubbish. Dwelling on this stuff is just thoroughly depressing, not helpful in the slightest - psychobabble at its worst

well, I think there were a lot of complaints yesterday, I think the response was already in place

@vegetaria 🤔🤔🤔

@vegetaria are you qualified in psychology and trauma then? Sounds like you must be too assert this so forcefully.

Well done. If this is true you’ve inflicted major damage on a fledgling career. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

You actually don’t realise how utterly prejudiced you sound here, do you?

The poor HT dealing with righteous anger.

if the HT did discuss the teacher with a parent in this way, I hope the teacher raises a grievance. Because that is unbelievably unprofessional behaviour from a HT.

I’m a school governor. The governors would not be in the least bit impressed with an HT telling parents that the teacher is new, young and naive and now s/he has waded in to put a stop to this nonsense.

In fact, I don’t believe this is what would have happened in that conversation. Or that the outcome you described is realistic either.

well, judging from the response on here, and the response in real life, we are far from alone in thinking this is entirely inappropriate - I think most people would think it inappropriate, except those in their little education echo chamber divorced from the real world

I think it’s important that children recognise media they feel is not suitable for them.

If I was at a friends house and I felt a film was too violent I would ask to turn it off or I would leave. If a friend had porn on his phone and was showing me it again I’d ask him to turn it off or leave.

What concerns me with this is the children are upset but peer pressure and conforming in school means they still participate. Most wouldn’t be happy to say ‘this is upsetting me’ for fear of ridicule. My son (10) would be okay with this book however I totally get why this would upset kids.

I haven’t described this well but consent and boundaries is my issue. I want my child to say ‘hey I don’t think that video/book/porn/computer game is something I should be watching, I’m not happy about the graphic content, it’s not for me’.

I don’t censor what my kids read, I wasn’t censored at all with reading material so it’s not because I don’t want my son to read it. I just want him to say no to graphic material he is uncomfy with and recognise how such material affects others.

I'd be livid if my kids' school basically censored a book they were reading because parents said it was too upsetting. But then if my kids found a book upsetting I'd explore it with them rather than tell them to avoid it, because that's how you learn to regulate your own emotions.

For someone ailing about trauma and psychiatry, ‘psychobabble’ is a very interesting response.

I hope you’ve got your kicks out of this ‘story’ this morning. Because I fear it’s less related to real life than coram boy.

Baby farms were one way of dealing with unwanted or sick children. The Romans exposed theirs on the hillside. And no doubt at every point in history people resorted to these acts out of desperation. It’s only in the last fifty or sixty years that women have choices that make those acts seem atrocious.

Personally, I think 11 is a little young for some kids, but you can frame this as an excellent opportunity to talk about how we deal with these situations nowadays, how we can afford to show compassion, how we have a freedom that would unimaginable then. Talk about medical advances etc.

I wonder if it dovetails with the PSE at this stage? Sex, contraception, relationships, etc.

Of course it is going to hit home harder for some kids than for others. It’s your job to support your child as he gradually learns that life can be shitty.

You might want to drop a short email to his guidance teacher saying that DC has found it a difficult read due to family circumstances. They’re not going to change the classwork for him, but will be aware if he is reluctant to discuss the book.

Rubbish, I am a teacher myself - this is not education, this is teachers playing God, they are not in any way qualified to fuck about with childrens' heads like this.

"model strategies" hahahaha! What is that even supposed to mean? Let me help you out - they don't and they can't

This school sounds awful!

Introduce a stretching, difficult book with tough themes that is age appropriate and might actually help all those pupils you say have suffered trauma to open up about the trauma.

Then after a few complaints from dramatic, over protective parents pull the book without further discussion. So the themes in the book have been introduced but will not be dealt with and explained.

At the same time as this, totally throwing a teacher under the bus and disrupting any lessons they had planned. Forcing them to replan and come up with a nice sunshine and rainbows book to read.

Awful.

I've read the book, I got hold of it last week when my child first got upset. Its CRAP

yes

I absolutely do not believe you are a teacher.

Not least given you seem to have so little idea how schools actually work.

Headteachers don't suddenly find out what's on the curriculum from parental complaints, having had no knowledge of planning documentation in advance and their middle leaders and subject specialists have responsibility for selection and rationale.

All educational professionals are trained to be aware of, and alert to, children's needs and vulnerabilities and it's ridiculous to insinuate that none could have their own experiences of adversity. Perhaps they're just the kind of people who work harder at dealing with and overcoming issues, instead of making a huge fuss and insisting on avoidance.

I think I’m off to find the book on Amazon sounds fascinating and I’ve never heard of it….but then I love historical stuff like this!

What next are we going to sensor the history lessons of WW1 or the holocaust if that upsets kids!!