To object to ds's teachers getting them to write to the new PM

[ipanemagirl]

and beg him not to destroy their creative curriculum?
It's seems a little overtly political. Or am I being unreasonable?
It's in a literacy class using persuasive language apparently. I think it's a little odd but maybe it's fine.

What's the problem with writing to the PM?

I think it's a very good idea. They're too young to vote but not too young to use other means of asking for what they want.

I'm an English teacher, and often use strategies such as this to teach persuasive writing. The most popular task is a letter arguing for a ban on school uniform!

Just to add...I doubt they're posting the letters!

Ok fine, I just thought it was a bit hysterical but as you say I'm sure they're not posting them!

In the past my Y6s have written to the PM in an attempt to persuade him to abolish SATs/league tables/PE/maths/joined up handwriting etc. etc.

I've offered envelopes and stamps but they've never taken me up on it.

They've also written to the Headteacher to persuade her to give them a new piece of carpet and it worked. They were thrilled.

Last year the government announced that it was the last year of KS2 Science SATs - two days before that year's Y6 had to take the test.
They were furious - especially those with year 5 siblings who were teasing them, and they all wrote to Ed Balls to complain - and the letters were posted.

i reckon Ed Balls was lucky that the writing task that year wasn't to write a letter of complaint....

We wrote letters to Prince Charles and Diana when they got married (showing my age there eh?).

There was a framed reply in the school office from Prince Charles thanking the school for their well wishes. Wonder what happened to that?

Doesn't doing 'real life' stuff get them more motivated?

I think it's wrong for others to decide to get my kids involved in their own political agenda. Fine if I want to get my kids on the campaign trail (which I do) but huge difference between sending a letter to the headteacher asking for more paint, better lunches, and quite another sending a letter to the PM about creative curriculum as it infers the coalition are going to destroy it thus making it political. (and I say this as a Labor supporter....)

It's for parents to decide whether to get kids involved in political issues, not teachers

my dd2 came home and was telling me she had to write a letter asking the council to not sell the playing fields - she really did think that all the school playing fields would be sold and thye would have to stay inside as no where to paly.

her letter was really good.

i think it is up to the child whether they want to get involved with political issues and they may well have different views form thier parents as they have a different agenda in life

Most likely they are pretending. It's a way of enthusing children and, if it's a school where the creative curriculum is a new and exciting thing that the children love but one of the pupils has come in saying, "My mum says that David Cameron is going to ruin teachers' terms and conditions AND stop us from doing the creative curriculum..." then it makes sense to use this as the basis for a piece of persuasive writing. No doubt it will have been backed up with research and a discussion on fact and opinion.

it's just a way to get children to remember that they should be writing formally and in standard English. and because of the election, most kids will have seen a lot about it.

Fair point, SE13. Guess it depends on the age of the children. Mine are 2 and 3, so I assume all others are too

If we don't teach them to write using formal language we'll be blamed in time to come when employers start receiving letters of application saying;

Oi, I want that job what I seen in the paper innit. I ain't got none of them like quolifikayshuns but I reckon I'd be well good at it coz I'm like well yeah good at maths and stuff. MSM me innit yeah.

I remember writing persuasive letters when I was in junior school - we wrote to chocolate bar companies asking for samples as were were taste testing as part of a 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' project - we got a lot of chocolate sent to us!

Actually I was more disappointed that my ds had written he was "disgusted" that their creative curriculum might be abolished. I said, surely in a formal letter to the PM "disappointed" might be more persausive language? And he said "MISS SAID IT WAS ALL RIGHT" He didn't say innit but he might as well have done.

Also I'm going to say something really controversial I suspect and hope for the best:
Miss has a pierced tongue now, I'm all for freedom of bodily expression but WHY OH WHY would a primary school teacher seek to diminish her clarity of speech and it certainly does produce a distinctive lisping sound. Honestly, I know I'm old but I don't respect that personal decision.

The way you've presented it, I would be very uncomfortable with the tasking.

The teacher could say, let's write to the new PM, here is a topic/a couple of topics to choose from, each express your views on the matter you care about, etc. It's important politicans know what voters think and you're a part of that process, etc. Them chosing what to say and what is important to them is also part of it learning experience. That is all excellent and I would very much HOPE around election time this is something schools would do.

But NO the teacher does not have a right to engage in an exercise which sounds from the way it's been described here as a means of gathering 30 odd letters to support HER particular viewpoint. Even if she's not planning to send them, it sounds like a subtle means of brainwashing. Totally not on, especially as they ARE children whose views are still forming and are probably not in the position to grasp/challenge her agenda.

Much as it was always useful to go out and capture snaps of dear little primary school children holding up their letters to the Big Bad Prime Minister (fills a 3-column width spot nicely) - away from work, the idea still makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.

I'm a huge believer in community action and an equally fervent believer in teaching children the joy of using words effectively but I also think that parents should be consulted before their children are invited to take part in overtly political campaigns. Certainly, the children should be old enough to have a clear understanding of why they are writing to the Imperialist Running Dog Prime Minister and be entirely comfortable about taking part.

So, from the information provided by the OP, I do not think she is B entirely U.

have we established whether or not they are actually being posted?

In all the exercises I've ever done on writing to argue or persuade I have never posted any of them. I've marked them.

all the talk of 'brainwashing' sounds quite OTT. She's not asking them to support her against fox-hunting or gay marriage; she's asking them to think about what their schooling would be like if they had much of their creative curriculum cut. In putting the task together they will have probably been asked to consider both sides (so they can practise counter-arguments) but come down on one of them. There aren't many children that would choose to do more testing and sacrifice their development through creativity, so it's natural they would choose this side of the debate. The task will be much more about how to put a persuasive argument together, using methods such as rhetoric, repetition, emotive language, etc.

I really don't think it's a biggy, tbh.

I actually don't know if they are being posted, I will check though.

Some teachers see their role as one of indoctrination and social engineering. You can bet your bottom dollar that, in these 'writing exercises', it will always be a cause celebre of the Left that needs defending - NHS, BBC, environment etc etc.

Can you imagine a teacher getting pupils to complain about waste and inefficiency in the public services, or dilution of academic standards to such an extent that universities have to run foundation years to bring students up to a basic level of literacy and numeracy and employers have to resort to verbal reasoning tests instead of looking at the inflated grades on CVs....

depends. Are they 5 or 15? Can they choose to write about something else? Are they being posted?

Can't see the problem tbh. Encouraging a political voice, letter writing, whats not to like?

It's all good empowering stuff but all I'd like to be certain of - if it was my child - was that the letter writing formed part of a larger project which had looked at politics and having a voice in the political system. I realise that you have to deliver this sort of project in a sensibly understandable age-related framework but I don't think this'd count as brainwashing at any level. It might put the letter writing in the most appropriate context though.

(I realise that I might be talking completely out of my uninformed arse here since OP's child might well have spent the last term preparing to storm the gates of Downing Street.)

No problem with being asked to write to the PM as long as they are encouraged to put THEIR OWN POV across not told what their POV is!