To not want my daughter looking at image of concentration camps

[Coffeeessential]

My daughter has just started Yr 5, and is studying World War 2 this year. She was already having difficulty coping with the subject as she is so sensitive, but I saw nothing wrong with her being given the basic facts as long as there was not too much detail - She's only nine after all.
When she came home very quiet yesterday afternoon, she told me that the class had been looking at online images of 'Jews in concentration camps', and I am furious. While I understand that we cannot protect children from the world forever, surely nine is too young to even begin comprehending such terrible images?
I would appreciate other people's opinions, before I go crashing into the Headmaster's office!

OP you should be proud of your child for being sensitive to inhuman acts, not being 'furious' with the school. She is obviously empathetic. They are upsetting images, sure, but this might be a good opportunity for you to talk with your daughter about how other humans can behave towards each other. Why aren't you saying, 'yes this happened, this is why we don't tolerate racism, this is what humans can do but it is wrong'. Things like that.

My ds were taught about the holocaust and all read The boy in the striped pyjamas in y6. They saw images and learned about the atrocities, in previous years they learned other things about ww2, it doesn't all have to be at once.
There is a big difference between a y4 and y6 child in terms of emotional maturity and to me it makes sense to wait until this age to study it. I think Slavery and Black History should be taught in this year too, or at minimum y5.
We also owe it to our dc to teach them thoroughly and if nasty bits have to be omitted then we aren't doing all those who suffered any justice.

I agree with that FrauMoose. gruesome images make you feel helpless, whereas concentrating on what can i do to prevent it would probably make a bigger impact. Deciding whether to go to a birthday party is more immediate for children

Also with Golden Bear, i would fear that too much exposure to the awful things people do to each other would spark a depression or an anxiety type problem. Then you have added another drop of misery to the world.

FrauMoose ideally I'd like to agree with you, but many teens here especially with Iranian, Turkish, Afgan, or Pakastani roots and a suprising number of Poles, will tell you the holocaust was and is just propaganda, (often anti Muslim) and that view was not long ago publically preached on the streets of London as fact, and our old secondary consequently doesn't teach it at all.
There's plenty of others have little idea what it was at all, or can only say 'something to do with the Jews.', so I can’t disagree with trying to teach it and prove it's existance young.

Unsupervised googling of images of concentration camps is not an appropriate lesson for Y5 IMO.

However the subject matter is , IMO, appropriate. I have two boys in Y5 and Y6 and they know quite a lot about POW camps as my grandfather was held by the Japanese for 3.5 years in various POW camps including Changi. I think it is important that the children know about it. I wouldn't let them google it unsupervised though.

It's unlikely to be an issue in primary schools after this year - when the new curriculum comes in. Primary history will largely stop at 1066, so WWII isn't covered until KS3, except possibly as "a [KS2] study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066" which is unlikely to include the Holocaust.

I recall learning about this at a similar age. In fact Blue Peter used to regularly feature stories about Anne Frank's family.

However, back in my day, I'm guessing we were shown a very carefully selected range of images. I remember images of prisoners on bunk beds and very thin, malnourished individuals.

If the children were sent to research images on the internet they would certainly have stumbled across some very distressing imagery.

Perhaps this is also a good opportunity for you to discuss the internet with your DC - this illustrates a bigger issue of what children can see when they search. They need to learn how to be honest about what they see and how this makes them feel and know that they can always talk it through with an adult.

I don't think I am saying don't teach it. It's more a question of how and when, and seeing it as an endpoint on a spectrum of behaviour that was based on the ideology of Aryan supremacy. I do take the point that there comes a time when the whole issue of Holocaust denial needs to be addressed. (Perhaps within the context of how you weigh up - or choose to disregard - historical evidence.)

Oh yes Blue Peter, you seed that used to be such a good point of reference. We have nothing liked that now really. And Newsround too!

Used to be

I think the point raised earlier about children being unable to learn if they are frightened and upset is a good one. I know that holocaust images are upsetting at any age, but I think that a thirteen or fourteen year old would be able to process them in a way which would be very difficult for a child that is still young enough to want to climb into his mother's bed when he has nightmares.

Allowing unsupervised googling at that age smacks of laziness and poor teaching to me. There are lots of teachers who work hard to provide age-appropriate resources for class topics, and I'm not sure what was going on for this teacher to not bother.

valiumredhead - whilst both were great in their day at giving children information about their own and the wider world, the internet has (for better or worse) negated the need for both types of program. Providing the internet is used in an age appropriate manner, it is such an awesome tool that nothing can compare. I think in this instance the school were remiss if their internal filters did not stop some of the more extreme images that searching for concentration camps will bring up but, by the same degree, i do not think that, taught correctly and to the appropriate depth for age, this subject should be one that cannot and should not be taught, especially in this country when there seems to be a turning tide toward prejudice and discrimination from all angles and sides..

Ah yes Dusty, the delightful new curriculum, where kids won't learn anything past 1066 and will get all excited about the stone age and Alfred the great.....!

Bicycle,I completely agree and have said so in my early posts, no random googling but absolutely to being taught with selected pictures.

FrauMoose I know you're not saying don't teach it, but here you couldn't teach anything to many, because they didn't get shown it young enough to to ever consider anything possible other than later parental and Imam guided disinformation, and by that age you're up against a certainty and a set of moulded beliefs that are considered dangerous to challenge.

Again our old secondary has removed One flew over the cuckoo’s nest and Of mice and men from the syllabus and many books from the library, following mass walk outs by black pupils. If some level of acceptance of tackling difficult subjects and being uncomfortable hasn't been accepted before secondary it is rather too late because minds are already closed and there's no educated discussion to be had.

I don't have the answers, I just think if schools are to provide a base of knowledge regardless of parental choices, it's important for us all to recognise that in some places there are now growing major issues with tackling things later, just as there are with tackling them earlier.

Oh interesting, of mice and men is still on reading list at our secondary school. I was stunned tbh as it was on mine at school 20 years ago.

It might be worth remembering that children of any age could have seen that on Pathe News at the cinema when they were first discovered.

valium

one of my favourite books. and the film with Malkovich and Sinise is amazing

I preferred An Inspector Calls

squoosh I didn't say people were saying "that children shouldn't be taught about the Holocaust", I said "supporting the view that we should delay teaching children about it"

RustyBear WTF?! Why?

*JustGettingOnWithIt^ I agree with everything you say, especially re influencing impressionable young minds, and introducing aspects of the Holocaust at an early age.

I really do think it's more of a secondary school subject, really.

I don't mean that you shouldn't touch on it beforehand. But to actually be able to see graphic pictures and personal stories seems to me to be more traumatising than helpful.

I know some people can argue that by traumatising them, it'll make them less likely to go down that route. It could very easily make them paranoid and nervous, which doesn't help a child with their growth.

I know at 9 that would've deeply upset me. I have seen graphic images as an adult and been deeply upset and depressed. Although it doesn't get better, your understanding gets better and you can learn about little things you can do to help (humanitary aid and helping build schools for poor children and things like that). When you are a child, you are just left with this information and feeling helpless with it.

I want my child to feel like a child for as long as they can. Because once innocence is lost, it never comes back.

New KS1 & 2 History Curriculum

At dd1 school they do not even touch on this subject until year 9 as they think it is too upsetting.

As a humanities teacher in a prep school I am quite shocked that the teacher did not per censor the photos before showing them.
Saying that I have never done concentration camps with year 5 (do it in year 8 when we take then to one) but have done World War Two generally looking at life in UK during that time.

If I was that teacher I would be expecting a parent complaint and a telling off for just getting the kids to search the Internet, for that sort of images. And would have already gone up the head to admit I had messed up,