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.

If it was a 15 then they should not show it without permission, however I'm fairly certain there was a 12 cert schools' edition. Just as there was a 15 cert of The Passion for youth groups to use.

However the scene that still runs in my head when I'm feeling creeped out is from Bedknobs and Broomsticks when I was 3yo....

Tickytape I am with you on this one.

Not everyone is mentally able to cope with scenes of graphic rape, torture, the bodily trauma of war wounds, and so on. Not everyone can view everything and take a great message from it, some will stick at the visual images and be quite traumatised, that's why some people get PTSD from things they have seen that are too horrible for their mind to process.

People saying 'history is horrible', of course it is, but there's a point in which you can look away or would you all have attended the hangings and taken your children. Torture, the crucifixion, someone's leg getting blown off by a landmine, why on earth would you need to see close up pain to know that these things were wrong.

My husband was traumatised for months after seeing Mel Gibson's the Passion of Christ and he's made of pretty stern stuff. Did he really need to see all that to appreciate Jesus or his 'sacrifice'? I don't think so.

On Schindler's List, I think it's a powerful devastating film to see, and 15 is about right as an age setting. I would be happy for my child to see it at that age, but can't see the point of pushing it back further when you have three more years of school and emotional maturity. But for some children 13 would be fine.

I don't really have an issue with that particular film, just the people who think you ought to see things close up in history to realise what they are really like. That's exactly what I don't want my children to witness, if they really saw the suffering of so many in history, it may simply be too devastating, as indeed many people at the time who went into the concentration camps after the liberation found- they were haunted for ever more. There's nothing squeamish about being a bit protective and age-appropriate about how you expose difficult historical material to teenagers in school, and it should follow the pretty obvious film certification for a start.

Begonia Watch it first. It's harrowing, and he'll need to talk about it. The school will discuss it but he'll probably benefit from being able to discuss it with you first.

Yr6 is very young. Are they going to watch all of it or just segments?

Back to SL - We also watched footage from camps, viewed photographs from Auchwitz and the teacher tried to arrange a trip there for us - it was veto'd at the last minute, after we'd all got on the bus.

I don't know anyone who was damaged by it. Let your children know you can talk to them about it - that's hugely beneficial in my opinion, and will help them get things straight in their heads - but it's an ideal age to learn about what happened. Especially with it being Remembrance Week.

*To all the posters saying "It is a 15 for a reason".

That reason is because it is considered a film which it would be undesirable for a 14 year old to rent or buy on his/her own and be able to watch in its entirety alone without any control by an adult.

It is not because it is considered that any part of the film could not be shown to anyone below 15 by a history teacher who knows the children who are going to watch it, who is present in the room, and who is going to discuss the film with them. *

What LaLaGabby said. Also the Holocaust IS distressing and lets not dumb down what happened here. I actually think The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas an Escape from Sobibor was WORSE.

I have been to one of the camps, the most horrific experience ever.

and OP, your dd is definitely not "immature" for being upset at having seen scenes of horrific cruelty. This is a perfectly natural response from an emotionally developed personality. The post that sneers that your dd is an immature 13 year old has to be the most ridiculous post I have ever seen on MN.

Also- when I saw Schindler's List, it had an interval (quite a long time ago in some art house cinema) and me and the friend I had gone with were so upset we could barely speak to each other, and we cried together in the interval and then afterwards for an hour or so. It affected me for weeks afterwards. We were in our mid-twenties, and had read Anne Frank and I had even done courses on Holocaust literature, which also upset me, but this one just hurt more, painfully. I would not view it again.

I disagree that a classroom, in front of other students, who may not have found it quite so harrowing, is the right place to process the inhumanity of man to man. Plenty of students are quite desensitized to graphic images having seen 1000's of them on videos/TV and won't have engaged with the story necessarily, ironically the ones with low emotional literacy. The very distressed ones are not only upset they are more distressed, they have to manage (hide?) their emotions in front of their less affected peers.

There seems to be a tendency towards public spheres of emotional display, like sharing stories about yourself, or watching upsetting material together and discussing it, in schools now. I cannot help feeling that this is not making our childrem more emotionally sensitive at all.

There seems to be a tendency towards public spheres of emotional display, like sharing stories about yourself, or watching upsetting material together and discussing it, in schools now. I cannot help feeling that this is not making our childrem more emotionally sensitive at al

I agree with this what is wrong with being sensitive and showing emotion nothing at all ,

I am not saying public displays of emotion are wrong, I'm saying that wrongly handled, in front of peers who may not be sympathetic/may pick on those who get upset/laugh at some children, I am not sure showing ever increasingly shocking films at school is having any effect on the emotional literacy of some children, who in fact often seem desensitized to the cruelty of the world around them, if the YouTube videos they watch on the bus seem anything to go by.

I went to a bog standard comp, and the idea everyone would all sit round sensitively discussing the issues and not laughing at the boy who cried is rather idealistic. I also think showing violent material to some students who have already witnessed lots of violent material already just to up the ante (we didn't need to see violent films in our history lessons to understand the trauma of the WW2), to get them to understand what it's like, is entirely in the wrong direction and may upset some children more than others.

Personally when DS starts work on the Holocaust I would prefer to do some groundwork with him first and I will definitely watch Schindler's List with him at home first. He's year 7 at the moment and I would have no problem with him watching it at all, he's seen some of the World at War series (not sure which ones we watched, it was a while ago) so he isn't totally ignorant on the subject.
I really didn't like TBITST, the ending is different to the book I think? The ending of the film seemed like it went all out to shock for the sake of being shocking...
Last remembrance day he laid a wreath with two friends of ours at the local memorial. One is a serving soldier, the other a WW2 veteran. All the local kids went to the service, the place was packed with all ages. Our children's generation needs to remember, they will be teaching their own children without the benefit of first hand accounts IYSWIM
YABU to object, it's important, but I think you should have had the opportunity to prepare.

I can't even remember the end of TBITSP - that's what I am reading it first!

Both my children had seen Schindler's List by 13 and read Maus.

I dont think 13 is too young to be seeing and learning about the holocaust.

We went to the Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum when DS1 was 16 and DS14(end of year 9). I found it harrowing and upsetting. I cried nearly all the way round. Grown men were crying. We still talk about what we saw there nearly 18 months on. I think that is entirely the point of it, TBH.

Both my children have seen Schindler's List at school. I wouldn't think to complain, however, if a child finds it too much they should be allowed to leave.

Sorry haven't read the whole thread, but we were shown Schindler's List in yr 9. Sure there are some disturbing themes, but that's the whole point-to teach about that.

I think YABU, this is an important part of history and horrific things happened to innocent people. Year 9 is old enough to take that on board. They should know about it.

I was in school when the film was released and distinctly remember Steven Spielberg saying he wanted a copy of the film sent to every high school in the US/UK.

I went to the cinema to watch it when it was released in 1993, I was 15 (and a naive 15 at that). It broke my heart, was hard to watch but it was important to know and was an accessible vehicle to get my head around some of what went on during the time.

This isn't a new thing, it has been shown in schools for the past (almost) 20 years.

I think yabu.

Also, there is nothing wrong in feeling upset after watching a movie like Shindler's List. And surely at 13 any child should know what happened during ww2?

What is TBITSP?

And The Ring? It was on tv the other night and i was going to watch it but didn't ... do I need to?

the Boy In The Striped Pyjamas nokids
The ring is an American remake of a classic Japanese horror film, no connection to the Holocaust. (Watch the original, Ringu, It's much scarier!)

I don't think you are being at all U to question the school. It is, as many have said important that horrors like the holocaust are taught and discussed at school. But...

I saw Schindlers when I was 25, I have a long history of interest in the holocaust stemming from my school lessons.

It was undoubtedly the most distressing film I have ever seen. The little girl in the ghetto and the child hiding in the latrine flash into my mind even when I get in a lift and see the Schindler sign. (I realise its a name prompt and they are directly related).

The film as a whole is a hell of a lot to take in, and I think whilst there will always be some that say "oh my DC watched it at 10 and were fine" is very generalistic. There are other creative ways of teaching about the Holocaust.

I recently visited the Holocaust memorial in Boston, US. That is enough to knock your socks right off. I cried all round the Anne Frank house.

I can't even remember the end of TBITSP - that's what I am reading it first!

Endings are slighlty different in book and film-sorry.

I was shown the actual footage of JFK having his head blown off at 13 in a history class. Now that was traumatising. It wasn't a reenactment, it was the actual moment of a person being killed. Horrifying. I always wondered why they'd shown that. It did nothing to add to the topic, which was a 'fun' conspiracy type thing

What is the school's response to your concerns?

They are censored in my ds's school - you can't just go and borrow them willy nilly.

Not censored but not lent out to just anyone.