Is the poem too much for a 13-year-old to handle? Dunearn Secondary School has come under the media spotlight after an alarmed parent spoke up about a ‘violent’ poem that was used in a Secondary 1 literature exam. (A typical Sec 1 student will be only 13 years old.) According to the parent Ethel Lee, her child described the poem as ‘horrible’. The poem in question is Roger McGough’s ‘The Lesson’, a gory piece of work about a teacher physically abusing and torturing his students. Roger looks like an old, kindly guy, so you wouldn’t quite expect an Eminem-esque prose. Source The gory parts of the poem We have picked out the especially gory parts of that poem. The entire poem can be read here. He picked on a boy who was shouting and throttled him then and there then garrotted the girl behind him Then sword in hand he hacked his way between the chattering rows ‘First come, first severed’ he declared ‘fingers, feet or toes’ He threw the sword at a latecomer it struck with deadly aim then pulling out a shotgun he continued with his game And when the ammo was well spent with blood on every chair Responses from parents […]
10 years ago
