Hacker News Reader

Comment by sundvor | Hacker News Reader

I'm fairly sure I have been criticized by one of my 5 year old son's teachers for reading him Roald Dahl books. However they are such magic stories; he loves listening to them just as much as I love reading them for him.

View on HN

That's incredibly stupid of the teacher if that's the case. The stories are well written, delightful, fun, dark and children love them.

Do you think any teacher would tell him off for reading a childs book to his child? I don't think so ;) someone is fishing for karma

I didn't think so either; I was in fact completely flabbergasted to hear about it and we made a complaint to the principal.

Many people become teachers who have no business doing so. My sister and I, as an example, entered elementary school able to read (perhaps at a 2nd grade level? I had no concept of reading levels until much later so I'm not sure). Her first teacher, fired shortly after this, kept telling my sister she was stupid, couldn't read, couldn't do math, etc. It took her a decade to recover.

My point: On a forum with tens of thousands (more?) of users, nearly every permutation of awful or incompetent person will have been encountered by someone here.

Yes, yes I would.

To whomever downvoted me: Would love to know the reason for the downvote; am I a bad father for reading Roald Dahl, one of my own childhood favourites?

There are obviously a few (many?) who think less of Roal Dahl's books.. I guess he's not PC enough

There seems to be more of this happening lately, and it's really annoying. If someone's incensed enough to downvote a perfectly reasonable, sane comment, at least have the decency to write a reason. That's what the system of downvoting and comments is for, after all: expanding and/or elucidating a discussion.

Your original comment is echoed in various mentions of Dahl I've heard over the years: that he's overly cruel, and therefore unsuitable for kids. But these adults often miss the fact that he's delightfully cruel (with justice coming to the people who deserve it!), and ironic in way that a younger audience enthusiastically responds to.

Thanks; appreciated, and that's a great explanation which I'll remember next time someone is questioning my choice!

There is clearly a common thread of morality through his books which is rare these days. My son responds well to it, and wants to be one of the good guys! (I should be so lucky.. but still :))

My other, non-hereto-mentioned reason is that Dahl is of direct Norwegian ancestry, and so is my son (well, with an Australian mum) - so I take that as a bonus.

Don't ever criticise Apple then.

Actually, the system of down voting is to reduce the inappropriate and/or off-topic noise. Responses with dowvotes, in most cases, increase the off-topic noise, defeating the purpose.

I seldom downvote. But since crossing the 500 karma mark recently I seldom up vote too - when using my iPhone. The reason? I have inadvertently downvoted a few times. The buttons are too close for dexterity-challenged fingers.

Voting is an anxiety ridden experience now for me. HN got interesting with karmic power.

Edit: I was not the downvoter, btw.

I nearly hit the downvote because I couldn't believe any teacher would tell you not to read Dahl to your kid. Maybe one teacher in a million? Even then I doubt it.

I have a lot of friends who are teachers and their advice is read ANYTHING you like to kids. So few parents bother that they threw the rule book out decades ago.

I know, right!? Sadly, it's a true story. I obviously can't give the full details, but my son was asked directly by this teacher, why are you reading Roald Dahl books? I couldn't believe it. A phone call to the principal followed..

On a side note, son just fell asleep (Australia) as I was reading another few pages of Danny and the Champion of the World to him - well maybe half an hour's worth. Quality time; it makes for such good night time reading. (Danny is a very brave boy!).

I remember reading Dahl as a child and now I'm reading them to my kids.

They didn't feel half as dark then as they do now. And compared to the nightmares children invent for themselves, Dahl stories are probably pretty tame.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com