To object to childrens paintings of Hitler being displayed in school?

[coribells]

My DS is in year 6 . He will be studying WW 11 this year in History. Obviously a big part of that will be learning about the Nazis and Hitler.
Over the past couple of years ive noticed childrens work displayed in the entrance hall, and in the assembly hall. These have included quite a number of childrens paintings of Hitler and descriptions of his early life etc. My stomach turns whenever I see these displays, it almost looks like he is being glorified in some way.
I am of german descent and my kids father is Jewish. Am I being over sensitive. ? would be unreasonable to talk the teacher is about the manor in which they display pictures of Hitler?

Perhaps they do Mrsjay but secondary school children are more sophisticated that primary school children adn their understanding of the task would be different. Displaying something for information is also very different from asking children to take part in making their own image.

than not that

Henry VIII is the same as Hitler? I see.

Well, what's wrong with asking the teacher then, Sirzy? He/she confirms this, explains what the aim of the exercise was, confirms he/she understands how the display relates to the history of propaganda, job done.

I think people are very much over thinking this and almost wanting to hide from the parts of history they don't like.

Sorry but this is complete bollocks. I have studied a lot of history. I simply do not think about it in the terms you suggest.

I have to say, that when I think about it, I don't think it is appropriate for children to be painting his image, even though I think they should learn about him.

If the paintings were linked to teaching about propaganda, I think it would be obvious, and it doesn't sound like this is what they are.

Good idea to find out what the purpose is.

i havent even considered going to the LA. Depending on the response i get from the teacher I may or may not write to the head teacher or govenors. TBH i am assuming that school is a bit innocent and had not considered it might bea bit offensive.

Nothing wrong with asking the teacher, to report it to the LEA and other suggestions is a complete overreaction.

Just because you don't think of it like that doesn't mean others don't. Some people seem to think that children shouldn't be taught about things that might be upsetting or anything else. Or that art tasks should be cheery topics and other daft ways of thinking!

It's just lazy teaching. We're learning about Hitler? Let's all paint a picture!

Agree op, I would find it extremely distasteful and very odd.

Learning about history is a great idea, painting pictures of the worst dicatator in modern history and putting up lots of them for display is entirely another matter.
Shall we have them paint Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot just to round it out a bit more? Maybe some oil studies of Stalin and Chairman Mao? A whole wall of killers of millions?

There's an idea MrSunshine - though to be truly historical we'll need to include not just dictators but all leaders political, corporate, and otherwise - maye with little plaques to include those who helped them to power and those who took advantage of the suffering of their victims for their own benefits. A Wall of Evil Shame?

Complaints about pictures of Hitler are in a similar vein to the complaints people made during my Sixth Form production of Cabaret, when the students displayed a swastika during Tomorrow Belongs To Me. It's all about context, and the complaints were dismissed out of hand. Nazi leadership during WWII listened to Wagner; should his music be banned because of his outdated, anti-Semitic opinions? Having said this, if I were a primary school teacher, I would look at WWII art or propaganda posters.

Yoko

As your post demonstrates, complaints about pictures of Hitler by 10 year olds is not tha same as complaints about a 6th form production of Cabaret. It is about context. If it turns out these are just straight portraits, then the context is missing.

That is what strikes me too, MissAnnersley. My ds was in year 6 last year.

Of course they aren't in a similar vein.

It is about context and in this context, its just plain weird.

Jamie, I agree (although I don't find the context-less Hitler wall particularly disconcerting) which is why I added a slight caveat: I admit that I think an art project on WWII propaganda would be a 'better', more relevant, art project than a wall full of Hitlers. But I'm sure the teacher will be able to justify his/her decision to do this.

Yes, it's definitely worth finding out the purpose. I'm not sure exactly why I find a context-less wall disconcerting. I think it is something to do with glorification,

If anyone thinks the objection to the pictures is that they want to hide from/not study Nazism I'm afraid you're spectacularly missing the point.

Ask yourself - why are portraits painted, historically speaking? What is their purpose? (Come on people, this isn't rocket science). Hint - they aren't a real character study, they're glorification.

Or here's another way of putting it - let us say your grandparents, and their friends, and their brothers and sisters and parents, were murdered by, I dunno, say a particular terrorist group or well-known killer, and your childs school decided to undertake this sort of "art" project on them and whap it up on the wall. 30 paintings of your relative's murderer. How would you feel about it? I mean, I'm not Jewish, but if I were and DS's school did this I'd probably boke all over it, it is NOT some dim and distant ancient history, it was fucking beyond horrific, beyond inhuman. Just because you're disengaged from the reality of the holocaust - what was it Stalin said? 5 people killed is a tragedy, 5 million is a number? - is that what you think? - doesn't mean everyone is, or should be, especially the descendants of it's survivors.

There are lots of ways to explore war art in a more meaningful manner than copying pictures of Hitler. And lots of better ways to explore the war in general, I mean there are some really interesting psychological experiments you could run with the kids to explore just how easy it is to push people into obediently doing appalling things, or dehumanise another group of human beings. I suppose they aren't in the NC though...

Personally, I'd say this project was just poorly thought-out rather than malacious, but that having a word with the teacher is a good idea.

It is a bit 'dear leader'ish... :s

I think in some ways by learning what he looks like and about his early life, children are looking at him as an ordinary person, which he was. He was an ordinary person but his actions were abhorrent. It is important to remember that someone like him wasn't born with 'monster' tattoed on his forehead. It will teach young people to think about the history and framework behind the power that he gained and understand how a nation can be duped into committing these atrocities by blindly trusting what to them at the time, was an ordinary politician. Another Hitler could be born at any time.

Putting them up in a public place is not appropriate, however. YANBU

It needs to turn your stomach and make you think. we must remember and learn from history.

He wasnt a devil with horns but a charissmatic leader with skilful brainwashing techniques to get urinary people to do his bidding.
We should never ever forget that, and kids need to know that there could b4 a"hitler"in any generation.

So, you want to censor what children learn and how?

Oh, the irony!

Nobody wants to censor what children learn nice attempt to make it more dramatic than it is but fail

What do you learn by painting and displaying a picture that you don't by reading and talking?
And really, if everything is up for such treatment, would you be just as happy with childrens drawings of mass death pits? Walking skeletons, half dead children, gas chambers full of elderly women.....
No? Then, what, exactly, is the difference?

In years to come would we want our children to paint pictures of IRA terrorists. No. What do the children learn. Nothing.

I'm really confused as to how its appropriate to display pictures of this man in a primary school. There's plenty of people and images that could be painted around a WWII theme, Churchill, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, the Blitz, evacuees, why does it have to be Hitler? Bad taste in the extreme imo.