Does anyone else think that the work my DD is doing at school is a bit close to the mark!

[pinkbubble]

Not sure whether this should be in this section or Secondary section or Am I being Unreasonable section! So I apologise now if I'm wrong!

So here goes -

DD is in Year 9 and in English she is studying the book "STONE COLD". Now I do not know anything about this book apart from what is written in her English exercise book. Teacher apparantly asked them to write all the slang words from the text in this book, she wrote things like bastard and arse were among a few more other choice words.

Now what I'm thinking is - I know in a perfect world DD will not hear these words, but as a responsible mother, I and my DH have do not use words like these, so am I being unreasonable not to want my DD who is 13yr not to be writing such words down!

When I spoke to DH about it, he didnt seem that surprised, and said that he had studied books similar to that whilst he was at Secondary School.

All I can say that is - I must have led a very reserved life, to which my answer is I'm glad!

Nope!

A good Secondary/Grammar school. Grammar part was for the boys, Secondary part was mixed sex

I can't believe you've never ever ever read any Shakespeare - did you do extra Chaucer to make up for it? Am not calling you a liar, just surprised.

We had to 'do' Macbeth and Julius Caesar.

And part of the Pardoner's tale

The good bit, I hope!

The Merchant's Tale is a corker too

I'd still read Malory Towers and St Clares books, PB. I love 'em. Nothing wrong with them - just a diet of only them would be scary and narrow.

IIRC all of it.

Our English teacher was fantastic and made us read twice the 'normal' amount of books etc that we were expected to read.

She was inspirational. the best teacher I ever had. Miss williams. Bless her!

May I just heartily recommend avoiding the Franklin's Tale? Black rokkes and courtly love.

I teach "Stone Cold" and whilst I'd certainly do discussion work on slang words, I can't really see the point of making them write a list - it just seems like busy work to me. It's a good book though - except the ending, which I think is a real let down. Until the end it's very pacey and exciting and the dual narrative is one of Swindells' "trademarks" and works well. The ex-army guy is really interesting to get teenagers to focus on because his understanding of the world is so blinkered - so a good way of looking at unreliable narrators.

It's also very good at the way it focuses on homelessness, especially if the teacher gets them to look at some of the work/resources produced by Shelter, the homelessness charity.

I think it's great that you're going to read it too, so that you can discuss it with your daughter. I hope you both enjoy it and can "see beyond the language" as it were.

you're in for a shock when she does wife of bath.

At 13 I was borrowing my sisters highly unsuitable Jackie Collin's books to read in my spare time . The books we were given in school at year 9+ bored me to tears as they were rather simplistic or were rather depressing: (Kes, or the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner). Some GCSE set texts aren't very 'pretty' either.

We did the Pardoner's Tale in Yr9, and various Shakespeare from Yr 7 onwards. Tbh, it did illicit plenty of immature sniggering until we decided on a approach of Bohemian cool (and James Joyce to go with it) in Yr10. But we were sheltered grammar school girls, and bastard and arse were not used in colloquial langage. Much more shocking then. I was thrown out for guffawing in an English lesson in which the word 'intercourse' - meaning conversational exchange - was read aloud. Your dd may well have enjoyed writng those words in an excercise book as you are strict about language at home (and in that I fully support you), but I think it is important that young people encounter language and it's currency in literature. She won't start using it at home etc just because they stdy it in literature.

ahem - elicit.

I think.
Friday night and my education has deserted me!

I think you are overreacting.

You cannot shelter your child from the world by sheltering her from literature. On the contrary, literature is an excellent way of preparing children for the less savoury sides of life - far better to explore them in a literature class and to discuss them with one's peers than to experience them first hand with no preparation.

I think, as a parent, I'd feel a bit uncomfortable with pointing out such words in Year 9. When I was at school (a hundred years ago), I remember my English teacher saying that 5th year (Y12) was when 'sex reared its ugly head'. I think up until then, language was clean, even if the topics where heavy.

As a teacher of Science, I wanted to show a brilliant Brainiac clip the other day, but decided not to because Richard Hammond said 'arse'.

My lovely Year 7 class just bombard me with questions (they must think I am a walking encyclopaedia), and I have now resorted to having a little post box where they could put their questions and we would draw out five in every lesson. A lot of their questions are about s.e.x. (but thankfully they are not rude). When teaching topic 7B, I do the same as MB - get all the slang words out of the way in the first lesson, and eliminate the giggling from there on. That's what were were taught to do on the PGCE course.

I know I cant protect her every minute, and still after what all has been said still in shock...... (I will not contact school over it, just had never come across this before that all.

And as for studying books in English, I can vaguely remember - Of Mice and Men, Z for Zacheria. Certainly no Chaucer and no Shakespeare!
But then Schol taught The history of medicine and not he usual history of Kings and Queens etc.

Schol should read School!!!! whoops!

science teacher re topic 7b.....do you used the Exploring science scheme too?

I'm teaching 7c atm, all the environmental stuff.....sooooooooooooooo dull!

pinkbubble, one of english teachers at school was incredibly uptight and used to skip the parts that involved kissing,

or swearing, or anything she didn't think quite proper.

Does it help at all to know why your DD might be writing the words down (Heated's post)?

I did question her because I was a little taken aback as there were no headings or learning objectives!

Its not that I dont want her to grow up, she wears make up, goes on MSN, even let her catch a train to the next town with a friend, But I guess when things like that are written down its very hard to realise that she is growing up and she does know about things that I would rather her not know! Saying that she does on the odd occasion read some of the magazines such as Chat and Take a Break(not mine but Mils)as much as I dont like her reading them I realise that she is reading things about other people and hope that she realises how lucky/fortunate she is, also I know that she is reading them, at school I didnt.

Would it help if you read the book as well?

If they don't appear in any context they probably seem worse but if you know what the teacher was doing with the exercise

or how these words feature in the actual book it might put your mind at ease, perhaps.

I have already decided to get the book, have it on order from the local bookshop, Thanks for the thought!

The book is fab! Lots of schools study it in Year 9. The exercise you describe - writing out the slang words - functions as both a literary exercise and a 'lets get the shock of the swear words out of the way' type exercise.
I don't see the problem. Z for Zac has swearing and sex in it if I remember correctly. Studying English literature from year 7 - 13 is all about the BIG things - sex, love, death, war etc. She'll probably have to study Carol Ann Duffy for her GCSE Lit next year which covers very adult themes.

Oh crumbs, better get used to it then!