Is it just me or is this inappropriate?

[FernieB]

My DD's are 9 and their class teacher has arranged for the class to have penpals in the USA. When they wrote their first letters at school they were given the name of their penpal only. Now the replies have come back we have discovered that their penpals are 17 year old boys!

I know that the teacher is vetting all the letters but it seems really inappropriate to me. What do you think?

imagine how disappointed those 17 year old boys are going to be....... Yes I think its inappropriate

lol i think it's quite funny actually! clearly some kind of mistake has been made along the way.

do you know I'm really surprised the 17 year old American boys responded to the letters from 9 year olds.

It's bizarre. Maybe some sort of mix up over how classes are named over there compared with our year 1, year 2, etc.?

I suspect massive error somewhere along the line, but it is bizarre. I expect the boys will lose interest very quickly indeed.

unless it is some kind of weird program designed to make bad american teenage boys a bit more kind and caring by writing to small children???????????##

ok, that's not likely. but it's the only thing i can think of other than it just being some huge mistake

I thought it could be a mistake at first, but their class teacher is American and I think it has been set up with a school he knows. I'm meeting with him anyway tomorrow so will bring this up.

Thanks for responding - glad it's not just me.

I think that there's been something lost in translation when the teachers got together and arranged the penpals. Perhaps they didn't realise the ages of each others schools.

I would bring this up with the teacher - I wouldn't be happy at all. Besides which, the children will have absolutely nothing in common with each other.

No, this is wrong wrong wrong lol!

Someone has def f'ed up.

I wouldn't worry if the letters are being vetted first. May be good for all concerned.

I wouldn't be worried in the sense of it being pervy, if that's what's being implied, but I just think that as a penpal arrangement it's doomed to fail. The age gap is too big.

Inappropriate? No. Hilarious? Yes.