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

The thing about threads like these is that OPs simply just cannot gauge when they’ve jumped the shark.

I’ll take “things that aren’t true” for $500 please Alex.

Op you're late for your job as a teaching psychologist who doesn't know what 'modelling strategies' means. You've had the book banned overnight so you can run along now. 👍

I don’t either. And I really hope we’re right because the thought of this kind of narrow minded bigotry being given free rein with impressionable kids makes me shudder.

I read this book in secondary school, but I think we were a bit older - maybe year 9/10? I certainly don’t think it’s crap, I really enjoyed it.

However, don’t think it’s suitable for your child’s year group because elements are quite upsetting.

A teacher and a psychiatrist apparently. Busy career. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m hoping the deleting message for this thread is good. @MNHQ

Needs to be of literary quality. 😆

Yanbu. Some children are much more sensitive than others. Unfortunately schools, and Mumsnet, have very limited imagination/empathy and cannot grasp how deeply affected sensitive people, or the young, are by this type of thing.

Thirty years ago I was channel flicking and accidentally saw a couple of seconds of a horror film. I see that scene again every single time I put mascara or eyeliner on.

There is something very wrong with how Britain educates children and the way they’re desensitised young to violence is a huge part of it. 😭

quite frankly, no it doesn't.

No teacher is trained in all those topics

Some are trained in some of them

Most are bombarded in overwhelming deluges of information about many of them, but only in the sense of "MAT can tick a box" rather than "teacher knows anything"

I am only qualified in trauma inform due to being a foster carer in the past. I have some qualifications in psychology ( which are meaningless) and none in psychiatry, which takes a minimum of 5 years full time study

If you are a teacher, you'll know what I mean by 'modelling' in this context, as a core strategy for supporting children to progress. I'm clearly talking about guidance and facilitation, through metacognitive strategies. It's about demonstrating the mature, thoughtful way we can approach something that might be uncomfortable and acknowledging challenges. It's about creating a supportive environment to ask questions and gain clarity.

If you are a teacher, you'll know how the leadership model works and that the head doesn't take overall decision making in subject specific departments.

If you are a teacher, you'll know that calling a book crap and saying it being well written is meaningless is detrimental.

If you're a teacher, you're likely equally ineffective in that role as you've shown yourself to be as a parent.

Curious that you’ve posted in AIBU, OP, but seem 100% sure you’re not…

I was taught this book at the same age in the early naughties. I remember hating it and I refused to read the book and engage in class because it was so horrible. I somehow muddled through the term assignments and it didn't have a lasting effect on me, academically or otherwise.

I read this as an adult with full knowledge that many unwanted babies were discarded and left to die during the period in which it was set, and I still found it very distressing.

I have never forgotten the paragraphs describing the feeble wailing from a saddlebag gradually fading to silence, and the tiny fingers desperately clutching as another helpless infant was dropped into a water-filled ditch.

It is a tribute to Jamila Gavin’s writing that the images she conveys are so harrowing and so memorable, but I warned my own DD, who was then about the age of the OP’s daughter, not to read it until she was older because it would upset her a lot.

It is not, I think, the wisest choice for a set text for this age group.

no there isn't. Pseudo research, maybe "educational research" maybe. Scientific research, no

Sensitively taught, it's great to develop empathy with other children in the UK and around the world, who may have experienced violent situations or abandonment.

Jesus, the arrogance!

Why did you bother posting? You clearly don’t think you’re being unreasonable. Or was it to show off about your imaginary numerous qualifications?

@vegetaria - model strategies means making little figures out of fimo and using them to act out the difficult bits of the book rather than reading them aloud. HTH.

Yep, disappointing. Especially for a thread topic likely to draw in those with an interest in literature.

The head didn't say the head of English was new and inexperienced, other students and parents have said so. I didn't speak directly to the head, just to someone else who was passing the message on, as it has already been decided

no, I am off sick. I don't teach psychology, I am just qualified in it. Qualified enough to know that "modelling strategies" means exactly the square root of fuck all in this context

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

This is interesting, @EnidSpyton . I remember my older dc being a bit hormonal in year 7, but my younger one who is in year 7 now is an emotional wreck. Yesterday we had floods of tears about feeling out of his depth at Jazz Club, of all things. Every day he seems to find something overwhelming. Dh commented that it’s like having a toddler in the house again, dealing with all these high emotions.

Maybe this is why unwanted teenage pregnancy numbers have fallen off a cliff !!

some of you on this thread need to take a good long hard look at yourselves.

You are actually arguing that a teacher has a right to force 11 year old children to read supposedly historically accurate descriptions of babies being tortured and murdered,

Of course they are out of line and need stopping

Hope your kid never gets taught about the Holocaust in history. You’ll combust.

Anyway, I thought they were in Year 7, not 11?