Year 9 and 10 pupils at Beauchamps High School, Wickford, were set the exercise as part of studies connected with JB Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls.
The drama, set in 1912, involves the suicide of a young woman, Eva Smith, and the factors which led her to take her life.
For their homework, 13 and 14-year-old GCSE pupils were asked to imagine Eva’s final journal entry ….
Oh, oh…!
…a request which prompted an angry response from parents and relatives of pupils.
The older sister of one girl wrote: “My sister is reading An Inspector Calls at school and for her homework she has to write a suicide note from the girl in it.
“I’m fine with the fact that, yes, the girl writes it, but why are teachers thinking it's acceptable to get 13-year-olds to write them as if they were the girl?
“Personally, I think this is so wrong and feel really uncomfortable knowing they think this is normal.”
But (so far, anyway) the head hasn’t yet been forced into an apology.
However, headteacher Bob Hodges said: “An Inspector Calls is a text which has been set by the exam board, just like Romeo and Juliet and many other pieces of literature.
“With regard to the homework that was set, it was to write Eva’s last journal entry, explaining her thoughts and feelings.
“It is part of the syllabus, looking at the themes of responsibility and the role of every character in the play.
“I am sure every school in the country will be studying something like An Inspector Calls, and this is part of the theme of the text.”
Mr Hodges insisted he had no concerns for any pupils involved who might have had personal connections to suicide.
I await the inevitable FarceBook campaign to remove him…
5 comments:
One wonders about the quality of the brains of the current crop of "educationalists".
JB Priestley's play, 'An Inspector Calls', portrays the English upper-middle class as evil swine oppressing the innocent, downtrodden poor. As such, it has become a sacred Leftie totem, similar to 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Every state school pupil must have their nose rubbed in its pernicious, class-war propaganda.
Why don't the schools go the whole hog and make them study Das Kapital instead?
A vile play and wholly inappropriate as a school set book.
Fun fact: the play's simultaneous opening nights were in Moscow and Leningrad in 1945.
I'm thinking that there's little point having a nominally conservative government if the kids spend their time working through Uncle Joe's Big Book Of Theater.
"As such, it has become a sacred Leftie totem, similar to 'To Kill a Mockingbird'."
Of course! Can't have them reading Kipling, can we? Or Orwell...
"Why don't the schools go the whole hog and make them study Das Kapital instead?"
Now, don't give them ideas!
"I'm thinking that there's little point having a nominally conservative government..."
Is it even pretending that anymore..?
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