To have complained to school for showing Schindler's List to yr 9's

[jjazz]

Just that really. Dont know which parts they showed but DD was awake at 11.15 last night -upset as the scenes were still in her head. She is sensitive but not over emotional imo. she was 13 at end of August so is a 'young' year nine although the film is a 15 so none of the group would have been that age.

YANBU to complain about a Cert 15 film being shown to your daughter without your permission.

At our school (and most others I know of), letters are sent home when a film that has educational value but a higher certification than the pupils' age will be shown in class, parents are given the opportunity to refuse and their children will be placed elsewhere for that lesson.

Is it possible your DD forgot to give you the letter?

YANBU

My nan grew up in nazi Germany, when the film was released she made us all promise never to watch it. I would not be happy at all.

BTW permission is deemed as granted if a parent doesn't reply.

All these posters saying they shouldn't have been shown a 15 certificate film - this is perfectly legal as it was for educational purposes. They don't need to ask for parents permission.

apple 2 people have already said that but some people don't seem to understand. They are too busy wrapping their children in cotton wool and hoping their teenagers don't get exposed to one of the most horrendous crimes against humanity ever committed.

applepieinthesky - are you sure? It is standard in our school to inform parents that the film will be shown and give them the opportunity to request their child to be withdrawn from that lesson. Maybe our school does this to prevent complaints like the OP's, I just thought it was standard practise.

Agreed domino

They don't have to ask permission larks but many probably do for the reason you have given. I'm pretty sure my school didn't though.

My children have already watched the film with me so it wouldn't be an issue here but I did think that they were supposed to stick to the rating unless they had permission first.

Either way yr9 isn't too young to know. Didn't she do about ww2 in primary school?

link here

General policy is not to worry about permission slips unless you are showing the whole thing (which I am intending to do at a special, after school screening soon, for Y9 and Y11 students). Hard to say if YABU without knowing which bits they were shown.

Now I haven't seen the film. Is it the content of the film or is the film itself upsetting?

Our prep school has studies Anne Franks/Nazis in year 5 or 6 (I wandered past a class and did a double take at a swastika on the wall) and I knew from a very early age - certainly when my grandfather was alive (and he died when I was 4) - about concentration camps and WW2. I still remember having a nightmare about hiding in an eaves room from nazis.

YABU. It is for this exact reason schools are allowed to show films with higher certificates than the age group in question. Because teenagers often find it hard to engage with history on paper as it doesn't seem real to them. Show them a film and suddenly those images and what they have been learning seems more real.

Learning about the Holocaust should be upsetting! 6 million Jews alone lost their lives.

ffs why is she immature because she finds a harrowing film upsetting?
she would be immature if she did not

When I was in year 9, half of us were having sex, taking drugs and watching 18+ films without batting an eyelid!

I'm not saying this is right btw, it's just the comparison interests me.

^ffs why is she immature because she finds a harrowing film upsetting?
she would be immature if she did not^
She was awake at night upset because she was going over the scenes in her head. Most 13 year olds would have dealt with it, not go to their mothers. suggests immaturity and sensitivity.

I haven't seen the film, but I've read the IMBD states the film is graphic and harrowing but everyone should see it.

My DS is 13 yo and has started asking questions but I honestly don't have the answers. I think he should see this film, brutal as it is, to answer some of his questions.

I do remember reading an account of a woman in a concentration camp who put her newborn baby on the floor of a train when she had to climb aboard. To have one of the guards crush the baby's skull with his boot ( that makes me feel sick just writing that).

I couldn't explain that to my DS. This film could.

(And my DD has read the Diary of Ann Franks but I wouldn't let her watch SL yet)

My DS isn't doing any of that Ghost. Probably because I wrap him up in cotton wool.

I know a great deal about the Holocaust and lost family to it. I have seen most films and heard survivors speak. It is important to me that my children will know what I do but they will learn about it in a gradual way. The facts are so abhorrent and distressing that I would not want my YOUNG teenager witnessing so much horror in one fell swoop. There is a vast difference between someone who has just become a teenager and those a little bit older. Frankly I think teachers should respect film ratings and take them seriously. There is vast amounts of educational materials on this subject to teach it appropriately. I highly recommend The Wave which is tremendously powerful. And fwiw the op didn't say she doesn't want her dc to learn about the Holocaust, just that she does not want her watching this film YET.

no It shows that she actually was upset by the scenes and understood them.
she should not be made to watch a film that has that affect.
school is for learning not for watching films

DS 7 yrs was talking about the holocaust when I put him into bed this evening. It has always just been there...books, family, imperial war museum

Your daughter was clearly shocked......& so she should be. I would be more worried about a child who just shrugged it off.

I watched sections of it in class at that age. We also watched the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan during one class too.

YANBU to be upset that your daughter is upset. YABU to think the school should stop showing things like this. Some of the best films I ever watched and books I ever read were the ones that upset me, because they stopped me and made me think and question.

If a child can't deal with watching that film at the age of 13, I worry for kids.
You can't protect them from everything. It's a learning curve. The fact that she was so upset shows that she may have been sheltered a little too much.

Our school does WW2 in Year 6; my eldest is in Year 5 but knows about WW2 as his great Grandad who sadly died last year was in the RAF.

My friend's primary school is in a small village and when they do WW2 the children actually get to experience being evacuated out. They are labelled up with a small suitcase and put on a train

However, I personally did the book for A level and have seen the film. On IMDB.com they have a parental guidance section for nudity, profanity etc and this is the summary

"Schindler's List is often hard to watch, disturbing, and very upsetting. However, it is a brilliantly made film and it is an important movie that everyone should see. The events in this movie are true, and therefore it is a realistic portrayal of the horrors of the Holocaust. This movie is for mature audiences."

However in other countries its rating was a low as a 13