Schools are using plays with very offensive and explicit language.

[Sherrie2]

Parents may not be aware that whereas TV and films seek to protect children from inappropriate material using the watershed and film classifications, plays are not subject to any censorship and schools are using material for GCSE which would be viewed as for adults only. This is an issue for drama and English Literature. My daughter's play 'Mogadishu' contained about 400 expletives, including over 200 uses of the 'f' word and over 10 uses of the 'c' word, as well as sexually explicit language. She was 14 at the time and was made to feel very uncomfortable as she had to read the script out for drama. This particular play is being used all over the country in schools and pupils are being taken to see it, even though it is described as a 'gritty' adult drama and as 'ripely filthy'.

There are currently no limits on the use of this type of material. I have set up a government e-petition to ask for some regulations to be put in place in the use of school texts in order to bring some consistency with TV and Film ratings and to ensure that schools are more accountable for what they do.

Please sign it, as once it reaches 100,000 the government will debate it in the House of Commons. Thank you.

Here is the link to the petition. Hope you feel able to sign it.

epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/60223

Can I start a petition to have adoptmama take over from Gove?

(for adoptmama clearly, not the OP)

OP- is your daughter very mortified that you are doing this?

On a level of one to eleventy billion, where would you put her embarrassment?

Just looked at the petition. Being badly worded and only having four signatures so far, I'm not panicking yet that Gove is going to storm into my classroom and confiscate my copy of Educating Rita.

OP, maybe you should have concentrated more carefully in English lessons instead of spending so much time like this about the use of language!

Hope you are objecting to the teaching of Shakespeare in your lovely petition-

After all, he described someone as thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch...

Ah - have just googled further. I take it all back now that I know there's an article about it in The Daily Express! That's almost The Daily Mail, which as we know, is a paper revered by MNetters. Make it to the Daily Mail, OP, and your work here is done.

But you do seem to have disappeared...

Adaoptamania, that is the best post I have read here in a very long time. I have nothing I can add to that except my whole hearted support for everything you said

Ach! What a "mewling quim" as Chaucer might have said.

I would ask you this, OP.

How are our children to get to the stage where, as adults, they are capable of handling such "explicit" material, if it is not introduced to them in a safe environment, as they mature.

Are they expected to be able to "handle" this sort of material on their 18th birthday, without any kind of introduction to it?

Language, like anything else is different in an educational context. The difference being there is EDUCATION surrounding the text used in a school.

Children learn about various forms of torture and slavery in history, they are not exposed to gratuitous torture in a film such as they might be at an 18 certificate film, they may see films of concentration camps and pictures of slavery but these are in the context of history and part of education. Children are asked to understand and make judgements about these things.

If we trust teachers to discuss torture / slavery in an age appropriate way, then surely we can do the same for a play that involves words we may not want to hear in everyday life?

They are not being encouraged to just use those words but to understand the effect they have both on an audience watching a play and on their use in the educational environment and the actors reading the words.

That is what education is about, stretching horizons, making people think just that bit further than they can on their own not just teaching children words (or arithmetic, or cooking or whatever), but teaching them how what they learn can fit in to the outside world, to influence it and to change it.

Complete agree with adopt.

Film ratings only apply to licensed cinemas therefore you can and I have shown a year 11 class an 18 rated film as I believe it would enhance their learning.

why does this remind me of the Shakespeare character whose urine is congealed ice?

As the OP has not come back to answer my very reasonable questions I am forced to assume she hasn't suggested any alternatives because she doesn't know any alternatives, because she never reads anything. Otherwise surely she would be clamouring to ban Chaucer with all his queyntes, and Shakespeare, and pretty much everything else too.

Go, adoptmama!!!

No to censorship.

I am 100% against censoring the written and spoken word.

wondering idly why exactly the OP thought she would find her spiritual home in ye website of the penis beakers...

another vote for adoptmama as Education Secretary .... maybe we should start an e-petition

They're just words... :/ I swear - though I do not openly swear in front of my children, but I am guilty of the of the occasional 'Ah, fuck me' if I stub my toe and I can't making any promises about not being over-heard when I'm having a rant on the phone to parent or friend when I've thought I was out of ear-shot..

BUT, my children are going to hear it regardless.. and they're just words! It honestly would not bother me.. Would I want my 3 or 4 year old, or even my 11 year, having this taught to them? No, not right now... However, once they're in their teens (perhaps moreso their late teens..?) would I mind? Nope.

.... used word 'fucking' 3 times in last post. Suspects she could have used it many more..... fuckety, fuckety, fuckety boo.....

.... takes flowers and nods thanks and appreciation

.... accepts nominate as Ed. Sec. on basis she can't be any worse at the job that that fucking idiot Gove

... determines first policy in the job will be to abolish all statutory testing in primary schools, especially that stupid bastard proposal to test 4 year olds.

.... wanders off with nice, chilled bottle of wine singing Pink Floyd.....

fuckety, fuckety, fuckety boo
I can swear often
and you can swear too

fuckety, fuckety, fuckety boo
But don't swear in Drama
the pearl-clutchers hunt you

fuckety, fuckety, fuckety boo
they'll petition the government
and try to sack you

fuckety, fuckety, fuckety boo
wank, pig, shit, arse, fuck
shout it out too

Adoptmama - you are a hero! I agree with every single, impassioned word from your earlier post.

I am beyond grateful that there are dedicated, passionate people out there who want to teach my child, and who gave my older two dses the education that enabled them to get unconditional offers to read law and maths.

I could not do what you do. You are amazing.

OP - your child will have heard far worse language in the playground. If you feel really deeply about this, sit down with her and have a discussion about the use of swear words in literature, and whether the author could have achieved the same effect without those words. I don't know the play concerned, but in some situations 'bother' just does not cut the mustard!

Maybe some of you need to censor your spelling. I think the word you are looking for is " disgusted".

EvilWolef

I've been called many things as a teacher

including on one memorable occasion

'you fucking whore bitch motherfucking cow' by a 14 year old.

In mitigation I will admit I had confiscated her Benson & Hedges.

I have never been called a hero.

With humble and genuine sincerity,

thank you

Discusted is an ironic use of a misspelling of disgusted, delbee. The poster who originally used it was displaying Daily Mail-esque levels of pearl-clutching horror, and I think its use here means the users think the OP is displaying a similar attitude.

They know it is not actually spelled that way.

HTH.

for Adoptmama and all her colleagues!

Ps - I hope you pointed out to her that repetition of the word 'fucking' was very poor construction!