Teenagers sitting the AQA English Language GCSE exam got a rather unexpected lesson about parenting from their source material.
The 15- and 16-year-olds tackling the paper on Monday 12 June had to answer questions on set texts, including two articles in which writers discussed how they feel about their children growing up.
Author Stuart Heritage identified one of the texts as his ‘Man With A Pram’ Guardian column - and he swiftly offered an apology to the frustrated students.
Heritage also decided to give the students a bit of context to the article they just read.
But that wasn’t enough to make up for the shock some felt when they discovered the line of questioning included being asked to write a summary of the different way each child played.
And to write an article arguing for or against the statement: “Parents are too overprotective. Parents need to let their children try risky/daring things to help them in later life.”
Many despaired of being asked to compare the activities of two children.
However, the texts did produce an emotional response from some students.
And there was one part of parenting, which was detailed in the source material, that the students felt their revision had set them up well to deal with: