I want to complain about school book choices!

[Anon150]

My dd is between year 9 and year 10.
We are not in the UK
She is at an all girls school

So far for English she has read a book about teenage pregnancy which she said was dull, today she tells me the book they are reading next term involves a graphic description of how someone committed suicide.

Youth mental health is a big problem and a huge focus. Where we live it is illegal for the news to give details about the method of suicide.

I am quite cross with the school and want to write and complain that they have exposed the kids to this when really it isn’t allowed, I think for vulnerable youth it’s a really poor decision.

I admit I am traumatised by being made to read a book in school that I still find the contents ‘difficult’ I was talking to my Mother (ex English teacher!) about it today and it literally brought tears to my eyes. However I also think the book choices for dd are poor and dull (English teacher Mother agrees!) I’m conflicted whether I should write and complain or not. I don’t want to be “that” parent but the choices are really poor, they have not been chosen for literary merit. Dd loves school but not English!

You’re obviously not telling the truth-my dd studied Macbeth and that was an all -girl school. So your DS couldn’t possibly have studied it…….

At that age they can read what they like. If your daughter wants to read them, let her.

Instead of clutching your pearls, don't over react in such a dramatic way and discuss calmly if she wants to. Suspect she won't, because it's all about you and your expectations.

She should be able to talk to you about anything and feel safe. Just being her mum doesn't make you a safe person for her to discuss issues, especially if you freak out like this.

I studied Stone Cold in school in year 8. Homelessness, a serial killer narrator, and the book is recommended as 12+. It's very common for students in year 10 to study An Inspector Calls, which is about a woman who drinks disinfectant and commits suicide.A Taste of Honey is an IGCSE English text featuring a teen pregnancy. It's hardly unusual for texts that cover difficult issues to be chosen by exam boards and schools.

Ophelia in Hamlet? Lady Macbeth?

one of dc read a modern book about bullying and suicide

The books my son had for Junior Cert (basically GCSEs) included paedophilia, drug taking, various types of abuse, I think there was a suicide in one, graphic racism - honestly, I was begging the teachers at the parents evening to find a cheerful one!

All seemed a bit much to me (I think we did Jane Eyre and a couple of other 'classics' - although I do remember doing Goodnight Mr Tom at primary, and that stayed with me for life)

I think they do it because it's modern literature, and to raise the subjects that they want to discuss/get out in the open.

I’ve been teaching English for 30 years and it’s really noticeable that parents are becoming much more vocal about book choices. It’s really noticeable that parents reasonable to expect to micromanage the syllabus. Most English Departments think carefully about text choice’s balancing, literary depth, relevance, etc etc. in my time at my current school we have had complaints about a range of texts including Jane Eyre (too long!) and Shakespeare at GCSE! Tricky subjects are often explored in a more interesting and nuanced way in English compared to PHSE lessons. Just leave it.

What is the book?

@tinytemper66 OP is refusing to say. Apparently it doesn’t matter to the discussion. It clearly does.
I mean it could be The Bell Jar or Thirteen Reasons Why or Hamlet. Who knows?

Your child will have absolutely no resilience if you continue to behave like this.

I defy anyone not to struggle with words like cunt, or even innocuous words (in context) such as knob in a room with 32 fifteen year olds. They cause mayhem.

Not sure how this would go with UK students, at least how they appear on MN threads at present, but it was absolutely fine with my Aussie ones. It was funny being aware of the surreptitious glances and nudges as "cunt" approached in my reading aloud. I read it with emphasis, as the text required. and they were plainly impressed that I didn't back off and gave it its full value. It was the frankly shit massively overrated "Jasper Jones" if I remember rightly.

Now I think of it, that had teen suicide and sexual abuse in it, though not detailed live in the action.

The Virgin Suicides?

I don't know why you are getting so much flack OP.

I find the books given to this age group in school are pretty shit overall, although I think in the UK they are typically better than where I live.

There is a huge emphasis on very new books directed to "youth" based on whatever trendy the topics are, often quite depressing. Usually they read a couple of dystopian novels which seem to be about half the youth section.

There seems to be an assumption the kids can only relate to these kinds of novels that focus on difficult social issues.

She’s getting the flak for not giving the titles - which, instead of suggesting she wants a genuine discussion involving critical thinking, suggests she wants us merely to validate her opinion that all books which explore these themes are by default ‘bad books’.

She’s getting flak as without the books in question we cannot say whether she is being unreasonable or not.

Parents often complain about more contemporary texts when exactly the same issues are addressed in classic texts that never get complained about.

And as for language choices in texts. I’ve never had an issue with swearing in texts. However every year Year 8 collapse into giggles every time Conan Doyle uses the verb ‘ejaculated’ to describe someone talking. And I swear Arthur Miller hated English teachers and that’s why he called a character Willy!

The Virgin Suicides is what came to my mind. My daughter loved it and she’s younger than the OP’s!

OP, you can’t wrap her in cotton wool forever 🙂

It’s a good book.

YANBU. I'm an English teacher, btw, and wish parents would complain about two of the books on our syllabus! I think they're wildly inappropriate and one is very racist without any real recognition of or discussion of the racism.

There's been wide discussion of limiting the details given in the news of suicides, in the last few years, to avoid young people copying methods. It's widely recognised that it's a problem, so I think your feelings about the book are reasonable.

Romeo and Juliet does have fairly graphic descriptions/images, but it seems unlikely that anyone is going to find a 16th century poison and a dagger is a pretty messy and difficult choice. Also, it very clearly has literary merit.

I started writing stories about suicide aged 13, as a very depressed and hormonal teenager. Such a book would have been dangerous to someone like me.

OMG, it would cause massive disruption! I mean, not bad behaviour, but loud hilarity, repetition of the word, mucking around. Would definitely derail the lesson for a bit in all but top set classes, and even there, there would be a bit of a snigger.

The thing in UK schools is that they are SO pinned down, that any chance for a bit of light relief is taken. A wasp in the classroom, or a sneaky fart for example.

If she is 14/15 then surely she is choosing her own reading material and you won’t know the content of every book she reads?

We had to study an awful dated book book by Sussn Hill for GCSE where the kid drowns himself at the end. I read something that said she'd deliberately made the characters 2D (goodness knows why) It was so bad I've forgotten the name. If it's that one, it's on the list because it used to be a GCSE text and put a generation off reading

The Woman in Black? That has been turned into a great theatre production

Probably I'm the King of the Castle.