Inappropriate Art lesson

For the posters who can't see the strangulation, it's this lady with the rope around her neck.

I don't think this painting is appropriate for 9 yr olds.

We never taught negative themes until KS4.

But they wouldn’t be analysing any of those in depth. Whereas they will be analysing this.

Theres plenty of female surrealists, why not choose one of them? I bet there will be parental complaints about this.

I'm an upper key stage two teacher and I don't think it's appropriate.

Did they then all have to create their own drawing showing scenes or metaphors from their own lives? It strikes me that this is exactly the sort of artwork that lends itself vey well to 'create in the style of this artist' lessons, which is probably why it was chosen.

The nudes wouldn't bother me particularly but the themes of trauma are not appropriate for 9 year olds. They will have plenty of time in secondary school to explore more grown up themes.

I also agree that there is a bit of a trend to explore quite negative themes in art. Similarly DD year 8 English curriculum for this year sounds so depressing, I really don't think she's going to enjoy it which is such a shame as she can write beautifully. She just isn't ready for the dark stuff yet. Again what is the rush with all the hard hitting themes, save it for the upper key stages.

I don’t think it’s inappropriate at all. It’s a symbolic, stylised painting, not a snuff film. You can barely even make out any strangling, and there is absolutely no issue with a child seeing nudity in art. Would you not allow your child to be taken into an art museum or gallery on a school trip? What about a cathedral? Your kids will see far more violent imagery there.

It’s an interesting painting which is open to anyone’s interpretation. It’s fine.

Interesting question. I don't think it's an ideal painting for a 9 year old art lesson and I am interested to know what the topic was, and the intended outcome of sharing it.

Having said that I would not be worried as such - I would have no problem with a child that age seeing painting featuring nudes, providing said nudes were not engaged in sexual acts. To be fair mosh parents would happily take a 9 year old to a museum or art gallery, which would contain lots of paintings and sculptures of the naked human form

As for the strangling, I am obviously being stupid but I can't see it!

To the poster who said her 12 year old lad would cry if he saw this, you must be aware that this is an extremely unusual response to such stimulus from a child this age, and that (if he is in mainstream education) it's not practical for his teachers to adjust the entire curriculum to remove any potential triggers for a child so sensitive..... I would of course hope that his teachers, if aware of his sensitivity, offer him prewarning when they are able to predict that a topic, text or image might distress him, and an opportunity to remove himself from the situatuon if he is struggling. I also hope and assume you are seeking some form of therapeutic support, as otherwise he is likely to find the world a deeply distressing and difficult to navigate place as he gets older......

But only briefly!

Your 12-year-old would cry at a painting that isn’t even realistic? School must be very difficult for him if he struggles to engage with art or literature as mild as this without ending up in tears.

I’m sorry if he struggles with the kind of thing you can see in any art gallery, but I don’t think you can really use him as a benchmark for whether something’s appropriate, as he’s very much an outlier in terms of what educational content he can and can’t cope with emotionally.

But he came back to life!

We went to the British Museum at primary school on a school trip to see the mummies and the actual preserved dead people. The main fact that stuck with was the brains were pulled out the nose - I still can't quite work out how.

Ha, that is also true!

No it’s not appropriate. I’m all for giving children challenging educational stimulus but children are exposed to too much that is beyond their level of personal development and this is the same. The artist had a fucked up and complicated life and that is what is reflected in this painting. So much other beautiful and diverse art work that could’ve been chosen - this is just self indulgence on the part of the teacher.

I think it's even worse for atheists as we don't believe he went to heaven after all the torture!!

I'm a big fan of Kahlo's work, both of mine did Kahlo at school at that age, and I think the main thing would be that a 9yo would get almost nothing out of this piece, as it's pretty complicated both visually and thematically.

Something like The Two Fridas would be better I think and a lot more to discuss with younger children. Nudity wouldn't bother me - we're very open about that and the kids go to a lot of galleries. It's just a bit of a shit teaching choice, very surrealistic and I'm not sure the rope tether/strangulation is right for younger kids.

https://share.google/nWqxnwy085ldKjNqh
Highlights from The National Gallery. Nudity, death and violence a-plenty. As a Londoner, I was taken here several times as a child and have taken my own kids.

Very, very true!

Not every week but surely most 9 year olds have been to an art gallery at least once?

If they have read the Horrible Histories books, which many do at that age, they will have come across far worse than strangling. I think we often gloss much gruesome stuff there is around. One of our local hills still has a set of gallows at the top but no-one been hung there for ages.

Because most children visit museums and galleries on weekends in their spare time to appreciate art work like the one above 🧐 🤪🤣🤣🤣

That’s a totally fair comment - I hadn’t ever thought about that, not being religious, so I kind of ignore iconography. But yes, depicted not just in churches but all over the place - I saw plenty a as kid. And children that age are taught the story of crucifixion which is torture resulting in murder…

So you never went into a church anywhere in Europe that showed a dead, half naked man nailed to a cross?

Inappropriate.
I have showed this to my teacher friends and they would no way use this piece of art in a primary school setting. There is an abundant amount of artwork out there to choose from- this should not be one of them. I’m sure you won’t be the only parent to find this inappropriate. I know my parent friends would not be happy with this.

It's not necessary when there are so many other works available, so I wouldn't be pleased, no. (And I have the feeling that some posters are using this as an opportunity to show off their knowledge of this particular artist—and perhaps also how 'cool' and modern they are—rather than actually thinking about whether or not children of 9 should be exposed to this painting, even if it's not as disturbing as some of her other works.)