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 problem is, primary schools now teach most of the classic books that we used to do with Year 7.

Erm I think there are sufficiently many age-appropriate classic books, and some excellent modern ones, that these haven't 'run out' by Year 7!! My mother, an English teacher, must be turning in her grave right now.

I posted to see if my feelings were an outlier or not. Yes I know I am not being unreasonable, but as I said earlier, there can be a massive educational echochamber effect about the most insane, ridiculous lies, like brain gym etc.

However, I can see most people on here agree with me, which is very reassuring, so thankyou for those who have been supportive, it gave me impetus! and clearly many other parents, and the head is also concerned, so hopefully that book will not be coming back

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

Ridiculous comment.

However, I can see most people on here agree with me, which is very reassuring,

The voting is about the same as it was for Brexit 😂

My DD loves reading partly because she has such a great imagination that the books really come to life. She also has a lot of empathy for both real people & fictional characters. This makes her quite sensitive & although characters do die in the books she reads, no way would I let her read a book like this. She would have nightmares for ever!

As a previous poster said, I doubt this would be rated a 12 if it was turned into a film. Not if the scenes were depicted as described.

Also the fact it is a set book means you can’t stop if it’s upsetting you, which is disturbing in itself. And to the posters that say it teaches empathy, it’s the kids that have most empathy that will be badly affected.

We read Watership Down at that age, still love it now.

OP, YANBU.

"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."

@Hereinthismoment I think I would prefer a group of 14-15 year-olds to find a graphic description of sexual assault disturbing, rather than funny. How de-sensitised has this generation become?

Why, of all possible subjects, has Gothic Horror been chosen for the Year 7 English curriculum?

Why are we trying so hard to expose our children to ever-more disturbing content at an every-younger age? In a different context this tendency would be a safe-guarding concern. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that a class of Year 9s laughing at a graphic depiction of sexual assault IS verging on a safeguarding concern. WTAF??

Honestly if my child were reading this book and some parents managed to get it taken off the curriculum, I would be personally rounding up as many other parents as I could to counter complain and make sure our voice was louder.

Year 7 at my sons school are currently reading Coraline. It's one of the scariest ass booked I've ever read and, even though it only came out once I was an adult, I literally still have nightmares about it now! But this doesn't mean it's not an amazing book.

My son read Coram Boys at 11/12 (he's an older one in the year) and it led to some really interesting discussion at home, and he ended up learning a lot about the awful conditions his grandfather grew up in. A time with minimal contraception, no real women's rights and abject poverty of a way my son couldn't even begin to comprehend before this book.

I would say subjecting your son to a seriously ill baby is a lot more damaging and worrying for him that a book like this.

Again, I simply do not believe that someone trained in psychology foster care doesn’t know about modelling strategies or the role of caregivers in co-regulating children’s emotions.

No matter how self righteously indignant they are on the internet.

I still don’t believe anyone in the school told you that the silly teacher had been put in her place and the book withdrawn.

If they did, I hope the teacher talks to her union rep. Because that’s incredibly unprofessional.

You've completely missed the OP's point. She's not arguing that English teachers can't teach the text from a technical standpoint. She's arguing that an English teacher is not a qualified psychiatrist, mental health or trauma expert and cannot necessarily understand the impact of texts like these on individual students who for any number of reasons may suffer as a result of being confronted with that text. And she's dead right.

I struggle massively with MH issues. Reading this book would set my progress back and cause big problems in my day to day life. I don't follow the news closely because it also has a profound effect on me. It would be great if we lived in a society where there was help for the thousands of people like me (ND with a heap of psychological co-morbidities), but we don't. Those services don't exist or aren't accessible. Cheers Tories. Forcing myself to watch the news because of some idea that I have to face the reality of the world, as people are expressing here (lots saying that 11 year olds should be aware of global news) would not help me or my family in any way. I already vote responsibly, I am as responsible as I can be as a consumer, I do what I can to help other people and groups, I am socially aware. Me watching harrowing news stories or reading traumatic stories and being an anxious wreck does not serve myself or anyone around me. So I avoid the news. I don't think that forcing stories like these down the throats of sensitive children because we're "preparing them for the real world" is helpful or necessary. English teachers are absolutely not qualified or able to mitigate the harm that this does to some children. How would you help my child, who has similar issues to me, who would be deeply upset by this and would likely stop sleeping, eating and avoid school? Would love to know. Given that her school can't even manage to support her symptoms on an average day.

So do you think the kids who found Watership Down disturbing should not have to have read it?

so my son should never meet his cousin? WTF? Do you think all sick children need to be hidden from siblings and family and never be seen by well people?

You are being far too generous about what this OP’s point is @BalletBob.

Well done, OP.

Now to make sure you get the Diary of Anne Frank and Macbeth banned as well, as those will be coming up in the next couple of years.

It's a classic book and highly regarded in the publishing/ literary sphere. I worked for the publisher when this novel came out - Jamila Gavin is an award winning author and a wonderful person.

Now an experienced secondary teacher I wouldn't approach this with Y7 but I would argue it has merit. Many classic titles deal with difficult subjects. One reason the protagonists are often orphans is to give them a wider scope of the world to discover. I would suggest that this is part of a richer picture of texts that your daughter will study. There will be hopeful, life affirming and joyous literature too I'm sure.

I suggest you discuss this with your daughter and use it as an opportunity to broach the troubling history of the past. You can of course raise with the teacher that your daughter is troubled by the novel and to check in with her during the lesson. Calling it for to be banned or removed from the school's curriculum is unreasonable. A school classroom is generally a safe, creative place where students should feel supported in exploring topics of all kinds.

It might be useful to remember that the cry of 'we never learned about this in school' is often heard when adults are presented with dark moments in history. If schools were to follow your dictum how would we answer that?

You're inventing a narrative. OP didn't say anything about a "silly teacher being put in her place". She said that the head teacher had removed the book from the lessons to be reviewed. That's all.

Hopefully in your capacity as a school governor you are better at sticking to the facts and maintaining an open mind.

No wonder there is mental health crisis of young people aren't robust enough to carry on their day to day lives after reading a book.

Use it as a discussion point. We had news on in our house when the children were little. They grew up understanding that difficult things happen.

Your son probably shouldn't have to see a severely ill infant in hospital who cannot 'breath' [sic], if he can't even cope listening to a sad story in his classroom.

He obviously doesn't have yet have the capacity to deal with these things and isn't being adequately supported to by adults who have caring responsibilities for him.

I actually think that it's being over protective and shielding children that has caused course mental health crisis in young people. Mental resilience and that includes learning about sad things is important. I have a neighbour that is refusing to let her similarly aged children watch the news even. I'm not suggesting they should be forced to read this kind of book without support but with context and in age appropriate language I can't see the issue. That said I took my children aged 9&11 to Germany and visited holocaust sites, museums etc - yes they were horrified but that is the correct reaction! The past mustn't be sugarcoated

I'm about the same age as you, and I agree.

Given how loose this OP is with facts… I’m not sure why you’re defending her.

The OP is also hugely discriminatory in how she describes the teacher. Which, frankly, reflects poorly on her character.

he has never been to see his cousin in hospital, he sees his cousin at home in a family setting, as do all the family. He also loves his cousin and his cousin recognises him and they have a lovely relationship.

Are you suggesting his cousin should be hidden out of sight because he is sick? Seriously?

there seems to be posters seriously arguing that children should not be exposed to real life in case it makes studying English literature harder for them!!??

I am not going to prevent my child meeting his sick cousin so that he is more able to read stories about the torture and murder of babies.

I think any child who love a baby sibling, baby cousin, any baby at all is going to find this book horrible. Should we make sure children never love anyone in case it makes reading English literature harder?

Many children in this class will have a baby in their lives somewhere that they love.

(The teacher, or whoever chose this book, probably not)

"His baby cousin is ill in hospital, he has seen him struggling to breath, and had him holding on to him with his little fingers"

Is what you said. A sensitive child being subjected to this is probably way more of a stress to him. My younger son is much more sensitive than my older son, so I know that there are things in life that he needs more sheltering from. A baby struggling to breath like that is something that would really upset him. It's not 'hiding the ill and disabled away'.