Feeling frustrated

[Hoppyhops]

I’m a Secondary English teacher. I teach texts like:
Romeo & Juliet
Macbeth
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Colour Purple (A Level)
Stone Cold
An Inspector Calls
Of Mice and Men
The Woman in Black
Frankenstein
The Tempest
Jayne Eyre
Wuthering Heights
King Lear
Etc. Etc.
Last week, I had a parent complaint about literature lessons and that the content is ‘too dark’. There’s not really much control I have over most of the considered ‘classics’ and the exam board. English Lit is just a gloomy subject! I’m not looking for a way to resolve this- just wanted to let out my frustration. Do we think there’ll be more of this in coming years? I never used to have complaints about the content of (mostly) classical literature back in the ‘old’ days. Anyone have any nice book suggestions that are suitably challenging but only deal with butterflies and rainbows? (Sorry, I’m being sarcastic- it’s just hard at the moment and I’m pretty fed up).

All the greats are very dark. I would ask them to suggest a fluffy "sunshine and rainbows" text that is challenging, thought provoking and excellent for discussion...

Ignore the snowflake ❄️

Any text worth examining has conflict, it's part of the structure of narratives. The parent plainly knows nothing about literature so I'd hide behind "it's on the syllabus" rather than engage with them.

OR

Romeo & Juliet: families make up. Aaahhhh.
Macbeth: political order restored
To Kill a Mockingbird: Bloody gloomy, I must say, but SFW.
The Colour Purple (A Level) Can't remember the ending
Stone Cold : Not read
An Inspector Calls: Condign punishment. What's not to like?
Of Mice and Men: See TKAM
The Woman in Black: See TCP
Frankenstein: A very interesting fictional representation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs on the part of the Monster.
The Tempest: Happy ending. Mostly.
Jayne Eyre: Ditto.
Wuthering Heights: Ditto. Sort of.
King Lear: restoration of political order.

Ignoring them seems to be the better option.

@echt Frankenstein: A very interesting fictional representation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs on the part of the Monster has really amused me, thank you!

We had a Y9 parent complain that the Holocaust was being taught back in March as it was inappropriate during a global pandemic. Apparently.

Haha thanks @echt that made me laugh.
I feel a lot better about it now; it was just the cherry on top of a stressful week during a stressful time.
But I’ve given them the ‘Syllabus’ answer and they can also have the details of the exam boards if they want! I’m sure AQA/Edexcel/WJEC don’t have anything better to be worrying about at the moment Happy weekend all!