The brainlessness of an English Tutor. Fuming

[crazymomma93]

Long time lurker, please bear with me.
My DD12 has been having some issues with her reading book. It has been making her feel uncomfortable, from the Genre and style of writing. So I have looked into it, got a jist of the book, she has pointed out some bits that made her uneasy and I looked up the age rating which was 14+. Now typically if you knew me, you would know I am not "that Mom" but I emailed her Form Tutor to ask if there was an alternative. Tutor emailed back after talking to English dept and DD dosn't need to read the book any longer, she can bring in her own. No problem. My DD has just told me she spoke with her own English Tutor, the day before I sent the email to tell her Form Tutor. After listening to DD, English Tutor responds "it's just words"
ITS JUST WORDS? Sorry is that not pretty much the Tutors whole career, teaching English?
I need calming because I am close to emailing said teacher calling her a c**t, because, you know "it's just words". See how her feelings are when she reads something that makes her uncomfortable.
My DD turned to her to ask because the book was making her uneasy and that is the response. What about children who get verbally bullied? Where is this Womans morals. AIBU?

"DD felt similarly about To Kill A Mockingbird"

What? To Kill a Mockingbird is an anti-racist novel!

Which book did you quote from? I'm horrified by some of the content in the books aimed at teenagers and stocked in school libraries.

I think part of growing up is learning to work through scenarios where you may feel uncomfortable. That’s life and realising you managed it is how resilience is built. Not by removing all obstacles or uncomfortable experiences. A book seems the ultimate safe situation to be uncomfortable about and move past.

No wonder young people are growing up more anxious and less resilient if they never have to deal with difficult feelings.

You weren't there. Children are often not great expert witnesses. Class teachers aren't in control of choosing texts - that's an HOD decision. You sound deranged. Your child is heading for a similar fate if you closet her from everything she finds a bit difficult. This is why I am leaving teaching.

Oh dear

I agree with you, but we were shown documentaries with footage of the camp being liberated. This had to be done at age 13 because History became optional after that. A friend of mine got nightmares and her parents complained to the school. I think that was stupid. It's supposed to give us nightmares so that it doesn't happen again.

School have some reading books that are quite surprising to me but I like that they dissect them and discuss the hard hitting themes. I don't know the book you refer to OP but I'm intrigued to read it.
DDs have done Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, An Inspector Calls amongst others. Dd2 is about to sit her mocks and we have been discussing An inspector Calls tonight. The themes are very adult compared to what I did in school but I admire the critical thinking that they are being encouraged to do and to explore deep societal issues.

It was a description of how a paedophile might teach a very young child to perform a specific sexual act.

Presumably though, she found reading about the horrible, racist things upsetting to imagine. She wouldn't necessarily have deemed the concept ignoble.

Sorry, but you are being ridiculous. And, again, I am sorry, but perhaps your daughter's anxiety around what she's reading might be connected to the idea of over-thinking everything. I think treating things with a more measured approach might lead her to do the same.

I'm an English teacher and agree with your daughter's teacher that words are just words in the same way as films are just films and politics are just politics.

In other words, they're worth considering/provoking thought, but not anxiety or dread; anxiety and dread come from something other than books.

Accurate fictional stories yes. Made up nonsense no. Though in the case of death camps I think any fictionalised account demeans the real suffering of the millions who were murdered in the camps.

By all means tell children the story of real people like for example Anne Frank and her family, they were real people whose experience is horrific, but in many ways accessible. There is no need to write stories about made up characters to explain death camps.

got a jist of the book

The correct spelling is gist, OP.
Calm down.

You can't unwatch something. I think children and young people are seeing far too much too soon.

This book?!

Perhaps read it OP then go through it with your DD and discuss together

Yes, but DD is autistic and the N-word made her feel uncomfortable, she was preoccupied of what if someone saw her reading it etc and general overthinking. It's a non-issue there are plenty of other good fiction and non-fictional books that explore the issues.

@Gwenhwyfar it’s kind of the whole point to feel uncomfortable and upset by To Kill A Mockingbird. The injustice feels real and shocking.

OP - whether or not this book is appropriate or not, at some point your daughter will need to understand that good and great literature is considered as such because it opens the mind to different situations and lives.Talking about why she feels uncomfortable will be a useful discussion point for the literature. If she’s just reading happy entertainment there’s no educational benefit.

Never heard of it and how is Tim Fletcher on curriculum? Looks quite good to be fair.
I do agree for an English teacher to say "it's just words" is somewhat ridiculous.

Fahrenheit 451 is about book burning and censorship! Which is a bit appropriate given the opening post.

WTF is going on on this thread?

Its dreadful what kids are exposed to. Where is the fun? the humour, the light and shade?

Have you read it? Do you know that it doesn't have that?

This ⬆️.

Eye scrubbingly graphic and not relevant to the thread, given there’s no way on God’s earth that sort of content would be allowed in school reading today.

Z for Zachariah?