Abortion and suicide essays banned
School backs teacher’s choice but others question why students shouldn’t tackle touch topics. By
A TEACHER who banned pupils writing about suicide and abortion has reignited debate about censorship in secondary schools.
West Auckland’s Rutherford College makes no apologies for giving teachers the freedom to enforce restrictions at their discretion, after an English teacher told a Year 12 class the two topics would be off the table.
But a 16-year-old in the creative writing class told Sunday StarTimes the inference was that the students weren’t mature enough to write about the topics.
Her mother, who asked for anonymity for the pair, agreed. ‘‘If the kids want to write about some- thing that controversial, then they should be allowed.’’
Controversial school essay topics have hit the headlines before. In 2002, 15 year-old student Michael Scherger was stood down from Cambridge High School and prompted a town meeting after he wrote an essay about an erection in response to the topic question, ‘‘ how does your body let you down?’’
Independent film-maker Christopher Peters, who has taught young students, said he often struggled with script-writing when he was a student at Massey High School because of the topics he chose.
‘‘A lot of my scripts were about criminality, a lot of drugs. That was my interest back then, I liked studying that kind of thing. But anything about drug use or above a certain rating, weren’t considered viable by the teachers. All the films had to be pretty PG. I said, ‘I don’t care about your rating, let me do what I want and rate it as a piece of work’.
‘‘Abortion and suicide are things we should all have the freedom to talk about. It would be pretty cathartic [to be able to] write about it.’’
Rutherford College associate principal Judy Farrar said the restrictions on essay topics weren’t a school-wide policy.
‘‘Teachers have to use their own discretion when teaching their own subject and you have to allow for professionalism and the fact teachers are individuals too,’’ she said.
If a pupil felt passionate enough about a topic they were always welcome to make a case for their ideas, she said. However writing about sensitive topics could be more difficult, making it potentially harder to attain a better grade, she said.
‘‘One of the things the assistant head of department said is that it’s difficult to write well in these topics. We make exceptions for students who feel they can write well in it.’’
Ministry of Education head of student achievement, Graham Stoop, said many schools set topic parameters.
‘‘ They can be influenced by recent events in the school community that may have affected students, such as suicide,’’ he said. ‘‘Equally, many other schools give their students broad scope in what they write about.’’
Secondary Principals Association president Tom Parsons said students shouldn’t feel like teachers were trying to stifle them.
‘‘ If there’s been a rash of attempted suicides then it’s prob- ably best left aside. It’s quite often not that cathartic to get it out in creative writing,’’ he said.
‘‘Kids can be self-centred sometimes, they’re probably looking at a good mark but sometimes they can’t understand what the
It’s erroneous for kids to think we’re stifling their creativity, there’s plenty of other creative outlets for them at school. Tom Parsons Secondary Principals Association president
unintended consequences are fellow teachers and students.
‘‘It’s erroneous for kids to think we’re stifling their creativity, there’s plenty of other creative outlets for them at school.’’
Allowing pupils to write
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freely can show indicators that isn’t happy, Parsons said.
However he believed it’s perfectly reasonable for teachers to make restrictions on pupils’ writings.
‘‘It’s not a policy – it’s a procedure, and it’s fair and frank and anything the teacher put in would be in the best interests of the kids,’’ he said.
‘‘The best creative writing has a genesis of inspiration. If you feel strongly enough about it and have got the vocabulary then it will come across better than ‘what I did in the holidays’.’’
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