To think a teacher with children on a school trip should actually supervise them?

[Matildathecat]

So, on a visit today to the revamped Imperial War Museum. So much fantastic stuff for children to see, experience and learn from.

My friend and I were in the war paintings exhibition which is a quieter part of the museum. One small, really atmospheric room houses a large painting of a young, dead soldier who has been gassed ( and therefore suffered a horrible, painful death). We are taking this in when a small bunch of boys aged around 10 come racing in and immediately start posing around this painting and taking photos of one another. The accompanying teacher watches on fondly.

My friend and I are genuinely upset by this and remark quite mildly that this is disrespectful and a bit inappropriate. To which the teacher says, 'It's alright, they aren't touching it.'

Surely the teacher should be considering more than this? We were really pretty disturbed by this. AIBU to think you either teach the children to respect the meaning of the paintings and maybe consider the feelings of others or keep them to the displays especially aimed at children?

YANBU, op.

I'm familiar with the IWM, though I've not been since the recent refit, and I'm sure there will still be places where children can scamper about - around the boats and tanks and so on.

But there is no point taking children to a museum if they're just going to race through it shrieking and taking photos (and disturbing everyone else whilst they're at it): you might as well let them loose in the local park. The point of going is that they pause, look and think, surely?

I suspect the chap at the Almeida who said that any response was appropriate might have been less impressed if the response had been to jump up on stage, shout so no one else could hear, and get in the way of the actors.

As a v v experienced school trip leader, I agree with spanieleyes. My years of UK & overseas trips have been massively rewarding for 99% of the students ... But there is always the 1% who, even if supervised, will behave disrespectfully in a context as described by the OP. For this behaviour, I squarely blame the few parents who allow their children to grow up with no respect for the concept of a museum / gallery / memorial etc. by the age of 10, the huge majority of children are genuinely respectful in these situations, and can be trusted to enjoy a small amount of supervised freedom, independently.

If a small group, they were probably with a parent helper or TA, not the actual teacher. Some parent helpers are more strict than others, but they're difficult enough to get to volunteer anyway (given they have to be CRB checked if left alone with the children, that they aren't paid, and a trip wipes out a whole day). Without those helpers, trips cannot go ahead at all.