Parents at a New York City private school are shocked at an assignment asking their kids to write a suicide note for their English class.
Students as young as 14 were asked to write a farewell missive in the voice of a character who takes her own life in novelThe Secret Life of Bees.
“Channel fictitious character May Boatwright by writing in first person — as if they were her — about her legacy and how they wanted to be remembered by her sisters,” the task outline asked.
The part of the project that has outraged parents with children at the pricey Upper West Side school asked children to justify suicide.
“How would you justify ending your life? What reasons would you give?”
While the School’s principal said he had received no complaints about the macabre assignment, parents have gone to theNew York Postwith their concerns.
“We were pretty stunned at the scope of the assignment,” said one father.
“We thought this was such an outrageous assignment for a 14-year-old to get.”
This isn’t the first time a suicide note has been set as a creative writing task and caused controversy.
A French teacher was suspended just six months ago after assigning 13 and 14-year-olds with the task of writing such a letter.
In 2011 an Australian school taught the novelSmithereens— which includes short stories about suicide and asks students to write two of their own — against the advice of experts.
And last year in England a mother was shocked to find a note her teenager had written for a similar assignment, mistaking it for the real thing.
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