On the subject of.......... (sorry jess. you'll have to read it [smile)

I must agree with jeni though, that the handwriting and spelling were very poor for a child of 14, when you think that in a year or two he will be sitting his GCSEs or whatever exams will be in place then. I know that isn't the subject of this thread, but the letter itself just highlights how standards have fallen.

Or that that particular child had not mastered certain skills?

You could view it that way, of course, Ariadne.

Why shouldn't a child (adolescent) face up to his or her own mortality Ariadne? Death is still the last great taboo in our society and we have an extraordinarily unhealthy attitude towards it. Incidentally, I seem to remember writing all sorts of perfectly frightful "poems" about death, disease and decay round about that age, so it's not as if adolescents don't think about these things. Oh and nuclear annihilation.

Mmmm. Thinking again. You are persuasive, absent!

absent - nuclear annihilation was a subject that ran through my youth. The image of the mushroom cloud haunted my imagination. My dad and many of my friends' dads worked in a vast explosives factory and every time we heard a 'bang' in the distance we would look out of the school windows in that direction. I imagine that miners' children suffered similar anxieties. So yes, adolescents can be haunted by the possibility of death, either their own or that of their loved ones.

Oh! [bites nails with indecision]

I'm not sure it's a good thing to put their minds on miserable things at that age. They can be very capable of getting depressed all on their own. (adolescence and all that)

Seeing as I got an honorary mention in the thread title (takes a bow emoticon) I 'suppose I'd better respond...
As an exercise I think it is fine. I don't think death should be a taboo subject in school. TV and film are awash with it after all.
Teachers are used to dealing with classes of kids with "issues" - they come up all the time. I was in a class that were doing a lesson on Sherlock Holmes. The 12 year olds, lower ability set, were mostly interested in his drug taking. "He was a junkie like my ex-dad!" one commented.
Problem seems to have been when the 14 year old showed it to his mum without saying "this is homework - I'm not really planning to die any time soon , good night, love you mum"
But 14 year old boys are not known for their emotional intelligence.
Many of them seem to think for instance that spitting is a good way to impress girls!
So have the parents in their considered wisdom contacted the press? Instead of expressing their concerns to the school. Give me a break!

Jess (to the first bit)

jess to everything you say.

Spot on Jess!