A headteacher has pulled a song from her school’s harvest festival concert after parents complained it was too hard hitting.Oh? What the hell was it, 'Smack My Bitch Up'?
Two mums contacted Mersea Island School after they found out their children were going to be singing about famine and fear.Heh! Faced with this, the school backed down, despite it being - it seems - only two parents:
They said they would stop their children taking part in the concert.
Now Nicky Sirrett, headteacher at the Barfield Road school, has decided to replace the song.Oh, shame! I expect you'll find some other way to impress upon the kiddiewinks how awful the West is and how we are to blame for everything, though...
Mrs Sirett said: “We have listened to the concerns of a very small minority of parents. I have had two contact me, and have decided not to do the song.”
The parents complained about the song Newspaper Pictures because the lyrics are about dying and not new life.Thankfully, someone has posted a link to this magnum opus in the comments. Have a listen.
So, I can understand why some parents objected. Though I'm not entirely sure harvest festival is about new life. Are they getting it mixed up with Easter?
One mum, who asked not to be named, said her nine-year-old son had raised his own concerns about the song.Well, I have to admit, it doesn't sound very 'Bringing In The Sheaves' to me. But looking at the comments to that piece, more than a few people are happy to have this sort of rubbish rammed down the throats of the next generation. Got to raise them right!
She said: “It was sent home as homework, but when I had a look at it, I couldn’t believe it.
“I am not trying to put my son in a bubble, but I also do not think they should be singing songs with such words in them.
“It talks about mothers holding dying children and tanks rolling into war-torn towns.
There is even a line where it more or less says there is no hope.”
I expect games in this school will be organised via the methods Dick Puddlecote highlights too...
The mum said she could not understand why a song that was more about war and dying than harvest time, had been chosen for a festival that is more about growth and new life.No, again, that's spring. But hey, I'm not going to quibble.
Well done anyway. It's not often the forces of the Righteous beat such a hasty retreat. More please, faster.
I thought it was about knowing you're going to have something to eat during the winter, though the guff about dying tanks and mothers rolling into baby torn towns or whatever doesn't really fit with that either.
ReplyDeleteHarvest Festivals may well be 'sold' as a celebration but were also the point where tythes and taxes could be assessed and in some cases payments made. For many it spelled the beginning of a prolonged period of hardship, not so long ago either. You only have to read the accounts of S L BenSusan, written in the period up to and after WW2 to realise the brutality of the post harvest period, especially on the rural poor.
ReplyDeleteAs to parent power; lets have a bit more of this, it is about time a few trendy heads listened to their 'customers'.
I am still traumatised by our school hymn which had something to do with feet treading our ancient pastures green and building a New Jerusalem. I think my misguided and childish interpretation was of Jews invading our cricket square barefoot and enforcing circumcisions. I side with the parents and Plato on this one. Music should be banned totally, though sometime after smacking bitch songs justified as non-violent and really about injection practice. I would enjoy Brahms so much more if they made it a vice.
ReplyDelete“It talks about mothers holding dying children and tanks rolling into war-torn towns.
ReplyDeleteThere is even a line where it more or less says there is no hope.”
Well it's coming to a town near them soon, compliments of the socialist dream, they just as well get used to the idea at an early age, even if it doesn't have any relevance to a harvest festival.
"...the guff about dying tanks and mothers rolling into baby torn towns or whatever doesn't really fit with that either."
ReplyDeleteQuite! It's like a BBC3 sketch about 'trendy vicars'.
"...but were also the point where tythes and taxes could be assessed and in some cases payments made."
I did not know that!
"I think my misguided and childish interpretation was of Jews invading our cricket square barefoot and enforcing circumcisions."
Heh! Yes, you never think how children may interpret some of the songs they are made to sing, do you?
"Well it's coming to a town near them soon, compliments of the socialist dream..."
The only thing missing seems to have been the constant strikes and rubbish and undead bodies piling up...