This poem was given as homework. Am I being over-sensitive?

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My daughter came home with a poem glued into her book. The class were all told to learn the same poem off by heart to recite that week in front of the class. My daughter (10 years old) was upset by it on behalf of her friends. I have spoken to a few parents. Some hadn't seen it, some had children upset by it. One boy cried as his parents had just split up. Anyway, here's the poem (it was given as homework in Fathers' day week):

'What Dads Do'
Make bookshelves
Make burgers
Make money.
Make funny faces that make you laugh.
Scratch your back when you can't reach where it itches.
Lift you up on their shoulders.
Snore when they're sleeping (but say they don't).
Pitch - but not so fast that you can't hit their pitches.
Play tickles with you when you feel like a silly person.
Snuggle up close with you when you feel like a sad one.
Dads explain electricity
And peninsulas
And help you count the stars.
I wish I still had one.

Half the children in the class have divorced parents, a couple have deceased dads. One child said to his mum, "I wish I still had one too" and said he would recite the poem but didn't want to say the last line.

Is it me or does anybody else feel this is inappropriate for a year 5 class? There was no context by the way, it was just pasted into their homework books.

It's insensitive, sexist and a crap poem.

Sexist drivel.

There must be better in the lexicon of poetry?!

FUCK OFF DAILY MAIL.

This poem is going to make some children feel wistful and sad - either because Dad is absent or because he doesn't measure up to this glowing depiction.

And are Mums too busy hoovering and baking cakes to help with the complexities of electricity?

The teacher has certainly found a poem with the potential to demoralise on so many different levels!

It would have devastated my children. They were that age when we divorced.

I think you have to be quite grownup to infer "here's a load of things dads might do; someone else does them for me because I don't have a dad, but I still miss mine". I think it would be a reasonable comprehension exercise for teenagers ... but not for 9/10yos. I think they'd only see the immediate layers.

It reminds me of my gcse English paper which had the 'stop all the clocks from chiming' poem about losing a loved one. My friend's mum had died recently and this really upset her. I think that it is insensitive. Sure give kids a chance to talk about loss and grief but getting them to recite a poem about it? Nope.
Also feels pretty sexist to me, though I guess it doesn't say women can't do these things.

Thanks to the unlovely Michael Gove, learning and reciting poetry is now a compulsory part of the primary curriculum.

Doesn't have to be this bad though.

And yes, it is insensitive and sexist.

Aside from the sexist bullshit, that poem would have reduced my 11yo DS to tears if he had read that in class. He wouldn't have recited it. He wouldn't have been able to. His dad might do all those things but not for him. He does nothing for him. He isn't deceased. He just doesn't do parenting apparently.

I understand what posters are saying but different poems upset different children, not sure to what extent this upsets and therefore not convinced either way

I'd be correcting it. I'm happily married but I'd still correct it

Most of the bereaved people I know welcome the opportunity to talk about their deceased loved ones. They find the wall of silence, where no one dares mention the person they've lost, one of the hardest aspects of grieving. The teacher is presumably aware of the personal circumstances of their pupils. Perhaps this poem has been carefully chosen to provide a chance to discuss fathers who are absent, for whatever reason.

I would be much better at explaining electricity than DD's dad on the basis that I did science and he did art. Also he is not around much and generally a crap parent. If the poem said dads come over every few weeks and take you out for lunch and talk mostly about themselves that would be more accurate. I think DD would have been upset, though more so at her first school where there were no other kids with lone parents in her class than her second where it was more normal.

I don't think the classroom is an appropriate place to discuss parents who are absent "for whatever reason". Many of the reasons are incredibly painful for children, and many of the children don't fully understand the reasons either. they shouldn't be put in a position where they are forced to either discuss it or opt out of the lesson.

It's different with children's grief.
Of course it's healthy to discuss loss, but it has to be managed very carefully.
You can't spring something like that on them in front of their friends and expect them not to get upset.
If a poem like that is studied with a view to discussing loss I would expect the surviving parent to be briefed

Insensitive and outdated.

I love it though. I wish I had my 70s dad, who did all that stuff.

I just googled it and it's by Judith Vorst, an American children's writer. My first thought was, what a shit poem. Why did the kids have to learn this? It's barely a poem at all, and there's no construction to it whatsoever.

Also:

"Pitch - but not so fast..." etc. I mean surely that's American dads. Would British kids know what this meant?

Inappropriate or not, it's just crap, pointless homework

It's not okay. Speaking as a widow. Not unless the teacher has checked it with the mother of the bereaved children.

One of mine wouldn't bat an eyelid and would tear it apart on feminist grounds and for being cliched. One would go along with learning it and repeating it, bottling up that it upset them, to fit in. And one would have a panic attack in front of the whole class, and never trust that teacher again.

*Viorst, sorry. Autocorrect.

I actually think learning poetry off by heart is in general a totally valid educational exercise (when you have a difficult moment in life as an adult, sometimes remembering an apt bit of poetry you once learned as a child can really help) but it only works if you learn good stuff. Which this isn't.

Not unless the teacher has checked it with the mother of the bereaved children.

And the ones who have absent dads, and the ones who have present but waste of space dads, and the ones whose dads don't make money or burgers or shelves.

I find it more annoying from a feminist point of view.i had a mother who did all those things. From the point of view of loss I think it's appropriate if it was discussed with the teacher beforehand as a whole class discussion.