A furious mum has divided opinions after she threatened to complain to the school over her daughter's homework.
In a Mumsnet post, the anonymous woman explained how her daughter, who is in year eight, returned home from school one day with an unusual homework task.
"DD [darling daughter] has been set her history homework for this week," she explained.
"She has to design a 'new Tudor Torture device'. Draw it, label it, and explain why it would be more effective than previously-known torture devices!"
She asked other members whether she's unreasonable to think the task she's been set is "unnecessary."
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"They are in year 8. Do they really need to be encouraged to think of new ways to torture people?!" she said.
The displeased mum later added a blurry screenshot of the assignment task in the comments and said: "Just in case I'm missing any context of this homework request.
"[Darling daughter] is adamant she needs to do this as doesn't want to get in trouble. I told her I would contact the school for her but she says that would just be embarrassing and she would still get detention!"
Group members were quick to share their thoughts, with many agreeing with the original poster that the project wasn't a good way to engage students.
"That is seriously inappropriate! I'd actually contact the headteacher on this," one wrote.
"This wouldn't sit well with me," added another.
"I think it's de-humanising… fun ways to kill people! Couldn't they look at ways that they tried to help each other and see if it stood the test of time?"
While a third said: "Year 8, not 8 years old. What's the problem? Do you micromanage all of her homework??" to which the mum replied saying: "No, I absolutely do not micromanage her homework. I was just struggling to see the relevance of getting teenagers to think up new ways to torture people - seems odd."
And someone else put: "Unless your DD starts trying to build and test her design, I really wouldn't worry."
Some suggested how the mum could handle the situation.
"That's v odd. I'd send a note in saying DD is not completing this homework."
Another parent could see what the teacher was trying to achieve but still called the idea "gruesome".
"A bit strange!" she said.
"I can only imagine that they think it would engage their imagination, a bit like Horrible Histories does by making it gruesome."
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