Eng highers homo erotic text

[Citygirlypop]

I’m shocked. DH and I just watched the history boys with a view to helping son do higher English.
I had no idea it’s all about teachers and groping boys etc. in the very cringey and uncomfortable end scene the boy talks to the teacher about the teacher sucking him ( the boy) off. WTF?

They also watched the film at school, it’s an 18+
DS is about to be 16

am I wrong to find this deeply cringe and somewhat concerning?

he’s about to do prelims so it’s a bit late to raise it with the school and I’m a bit negligent for not finding out more about it before.
I NEVER thought I’d have to check out the English texts!
do I bring it up with the school? What on earth do I say?

Is it "worse" than all the other English texts though?
I did Jude at school (child suicide) and also Tess (rape and murder), even Shakespeare has so much violence in it. And I'm trying to blank some of Chaucer out of my mind!
You don't have to give permission to watch the film if you object to it.
Is it portrayed as abuse in the book? As if not, that might be something you want to discuss with your son.

It’s not portrayed as acceptable though?
Also the boys are all doing an extra term after their A levels to try to get into Oxford and Cambridge. They’re not children. It’s a coming-of-age film. Part of the plot is that they discover their teachers are not all-knowing and beyond reproach. It’s also set in the 80s. I think you’re underestimating your son and his peers. Studying this film does not mean condoning sexual relationships or even sexual discussions between young adult high school students and teachers. It might mean there is a discussion in class about changing societal attitudes to people their age and sex. - It’s now widely recognized that it’s a really problematic power dynamic to have sexual relationships form between students and teachers even when those students are 16+ or 18+ and legislation and codes of conduct have changed to reflect this. Having students discuss this is a good thing for them and might make them think about other situations where the power dynamic in a relationship can be problematic.

It's a 15 not an 18, so totally age appropriate for young people doing GCSE/Highers.

Are you aware that the film is based in the highly acclaimed play by Alan Bennett? It's funny, tragic and thought provoking.

Not directly related to Scottish Highers, but this from the BBC bitesize GCSE site might help you understand why they are studying this text.

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z2fjp39

Books I read at school covered topics like rape, racism, murder.
I'm pretty sure many of the shows he already watches on netflix cover simillar things!

I do think this is interesting, the topics that they choose.
In dds drama exam the play they are studying has a pretty graphic self harm scene in it.
The main question in their mock was about that scene.
Dd and 2 others missed that whole section. When they came to go over it in class, she walked out. (she had bad mental health in year 8 and 9 and self harmed, is in a much better place now)
In talking to her drama teacher afterwards she said - this is a passage about self harm and it was really triggering for her, and for the other 2 who could not even read that extract, let alone comment on it. She said to the drama teacher, that she thought it was really inappropriate to have such a graphic scene as the one their whole exam was based on, given the hugely high rate of self harm amongst teenage girls and given that it is a pretty graphic and triggering passage. There are plenty of other passages in the play that could be used.

The drama teacher was surprised, and had never considered that. She did say that she would write to the exam board, but I imagine it is too late for the exams for this May. So if they use that passage from the play as the basis for their exam, dd will fail.

I have never really understood the need to rub kids noses in stuff which is so difficult. This is an English exam, not a psychological test.

I have taught the History Boys at A level before. I was really surprised when it came in as a GCSE text. I know it is a 15 but I think some of our 14 year old year 10s would struggle with it.
Tbh I wasn't a big fan of teaching it though I love reading it myself.

All I e come on to say is that the film is a 15 not an 18, so fine to watch at school.

Ds is doing An Inspector Calks for Nat 5 and that’s got some fairly dark themes too.

What, you think there should be a requirement for call literary texts studied at school to be basically nice? You’d struggle.

Coming to this late having recently watched it - totally with you OP. Something really off with it - whole tone of the movie is sympathetic to the abuser and all the boys being completely unaffected and just brushing it off. Pretty messed up! And it completely minimises the abuse. People who like this movie - how would you feel if a teacher was groping kids (or young people) at your children's school? Why do you feel differently about this movie/play?

But isn't that worthy of discussion? I watched the film again recently and I was surprised at how accepting it was of the abuse. But to me, it seemed very of its time - 80s attitudes to abuse were very different to those of today (I know the film is from the 00s, but set in the 80s). Surely good teachers should be able to navigate and encourage such discussions? I think it's fine for Highers, don't think ot should be a Nat 5 text.

I remember studying some very dark books at school- Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Macbeth for a start - they gave us really interesting and thoughtful discussions, and that's what literature is about, I think.

I hate the History Boys for the reasons you're talking about. I think it minimises what is basically abuse of power. However I don't think the answer is to ban these works. Instead if your son can pick out and identify - with examples - what is wrong with it he can probably do very well and also learn to read critically can't he.

Do agree it's worth discussing but do AQA even properly address it either? I've had a skim of BBC revision notes and the emphasis on the abuse is very minimal even there. I think it's very problematic when given the prevalence of abuse there will be lots of young people who have experienced it, being given this hugely unrealistic example of a whole cohort of boys seemingly unaffected. They are quite likely not to have told anyone about it - and they are reading a play where no boy reports it - and one even gets the consequences for hector to be overruled! The abuser is then put on a pedestal.