Teacher showing photos to kids of victorian dead children - slightly disturbing

Anyone else remember learning not to play on train tracks at school?

@whyiwonderwhy, I just googled the images and they are not horrific or macabre. I’d never seen them before.

From just looking at the images and reading a few paragraphs I learned that:

• There are huge cultural differences between then and now and death was part of life, and a lot more elaborate
• Photos and selfies weren’t a thing. Many families wouldn’t have had a single photograph of their child taken, until they died. The death photo was often the only photo they had.
• Victorians believed they could keep a piece of the person, their soul within the photo, which is actually so human, so hopeful and sort of more than I expected of that era.

I found the images to be tender and full of love, loss, pain and hope. The backstory of the photos is often beautiful and not morbid at all.

I honestly thought from your posts it was going to be like seeing the awful images that pop up from countries at war, those devastating images that you don’t ask to see on X. But they weren’t. They are historical, educational and beautiful. Not scary in the least.

So after doing my research, I genuinely think you are being utterly ridiculous.

Don't be stupid.

I think it is a bit unusual, @whyiwonderwhy - but maybe the teacher's experience has taught them that photos of the fascinating inventions of that period don't grab the kids' attention in the same way.

As long as your child wasn't upset by it, I wouldn't complain.

@EmeraldShamrock000 - I noticed people photographing the Pope whilst he was lying in state, and at least one person taking a selfie with his body in the background - that did strike me as bizarre and inappropriate.

There is nothing disturbing about the photos. A dead child is still a son/daughter/brother/sister.
I googled the photos and can't see the issue.

It wouldn't surprise me if the trend restarted, the younger generation often photograph the hand of their loved ones, next decade, it'll be full on selfie head-shots.

What a fantastic teacher, incredible way to show kids how mortality was viewed during the Victorian era, brings the individual/family aspects out. Social history is, thankfully coming to the fore. If we are to fix the world we need to understand all aspects of the past.
Well done that teacher.

It's a bit weird but I was really into horror at that age and had read Silence of the Lambs by age 13.
I would wknder too about the relevance to the subject.

I remember seeing these pictures and I'm now very middle aged. This is not something new. I was not traumatised by it.
i also remember seeing the aftermath of the brave firefighter who was severely burned. That stayed with me.

Just finished reading a Germany 1890-1945 gcse book and there are two photos of hangings in there. More graphic than the Victorian photos which just look like normal children. At least OP has a year or so to prepare for this one :)

Poor parents 😢 I can't imagine how hard that loss must have been.

Why don’t you contact the teacher about it? Ask the relevance to the lesson and what else they will be taught … you’ll probably get a better understanding of the intention of the teaching that way rather than asking a load of random people on here 🤷🏻‍♀️

What’s the problem? People live, people die…I’m not seeing the issue here, death is not something that you should teach kids to be scared or horrified of, it’s just the circle of life! I’ll bet the kids were very interested and will probably retain more in that lesson than any other. I think you’re being a little over sensitive and yes, unreasonable…particularly when the comments have not agreed with you, which to be honest, is most of them 🤭

Yes, YABU.
if you have a query about the content of the lesson then by all means ask the member of staff concerned.This is not unreasonable.
what is unreasonable is the way you appear to feel you know better and are coming across as quite entitled. I wonder if you treat other professionals with the same disdain- GPs, consultants, Police.
You could always, you know, train and become a teacher, then your opinion may hold more weight. They’re leaving in droves and there’s a current recruitment and retention crisis so I’m sure you’ll be welcomed.

I lost a baby to still birth and the hospital allowed me to take him for a walk in the hospital garden. It helped me. Something so normal as Taking him for a walk in a pram was something I would have never got to experience otherwise.

My mum died when I was 11, I was there when she died, but I didn’t want to visit her body in the chapel of rest. It all depends on how a person feels.

But she isn't questioning a teacher. She is on MN whinging about it because she hasn't bothered to question the teacher.

If she had questioned the teacher she would have her answer and then she might not be able to whinge which defeats the purpose she wanted.

It's always been shown. It's not new.

Why is it shown.... because it's history (literally) and what used to be done.

Some cultures still do similar and have their passed loved ones fashioned to be life like at the funeral.

The Torajan people of Indonesia.

Her parents were very involved with the school and were an absolute pair of cunts, complete religious nut who seemed to take some sort of perverted pleasure in being punished for the shame themselves. She was punished for that abortion harshly. She didn’t have a good life, poor thing. I was only in touch with her until our mid 20s and then she just dissapeared. I hope her life has got better over the last couple of decades.

And yeah, my school was fucking nuts. I would never entertain the idea of a religious school, especially a catholic one for my children.

I know someone who lost her toddler. After he passed they took him for a walk in his pram.

I don’t think this is a new trend at all. I was at secondary school in the late 80’s/early 90’s and in y9/10 we were shown pictures of aborted foetuses at up to 23 weeks. It was part of RE. It really stayed with me, particularly as one member of the class had a disability as a result of being born at 25 weeks. Im not saying this was right, but it demonstrates it’s not a new thing.

with regards to your post I don’t really see the issue given the age group. I think these kids would find this interesting - my son loved horrible histories and there was plenty of gore on there despite it being aimed at young primary school kids.

If it was my kids who are 11 and 8, they have been exposed to the other parts of the Industrial Revolution for years. They would be bored to tears by another lesson about beam engines by 13 and 14. As other posters have said, it's engaged your child enough that they came home and told you about. The teacher can now circle back to the instruments that bought about this social change.

I mean OP, if this is the worst thing going on in your life, you've got a good life.

Here's an idea OP. Why not just speak to the teacher if you're that bothered? Everyone's a critic. Even better, since you have strong ideas about how this topic should be taught, maybe consider retraining as a teacher so you can do it your way?

It's weird. What else has the teacher done?

In the nicest possible way get a grip. Death is very much a part of life. The teacher hasn't shown them anything gruesome and it was a fairly interesting part of the Victorian culture. It was probably part of driving home the reality that many children did not survive till adulthood.

Exactly, they'll only say the thing that they remembered or stuck out for them.
A picture of a building probably got a yawn and immediately forgot. 😁

Usual day -
Me - Did you have a nice day at school today? What did you do?

Kid - "nothing"

Ok, you did nothing all day, cool 🙄😁

Victorian dead photos day maybe I'll get more of a reaction as it's more memorable

Nice day at school, what did you do?!

"Nothing"

"Oh hang on, we did see lots of photos of dead Victorian children!"

Were the kids only having one lesson on the Industrial Revolution or was this just one of a series of lessons? If it’s a series, I wouldn’t be too worried and would just assume that it what the teacher planned to teach for that lesson. But if it was all they were getting on the Revolution, I do agree there are a lot of other more important things they could have focussed on. I don’t necessarily think it’s sinister or anything. These are teenagers, and they can’t be only learning the sanitised parts of history.