DS 7 has been asked to pretend he is in the battle fields and about to go into war and write a letter home to his family for homework

[Lemith]

This terms topic is ww1, but this piece of work really takes the

I don't want my ds to be thinking about what it is like to go into war. This topic is not suitable for someone so young, war is a terrible thing and the people that survived it were mentally and physically scarred for life.

Aibu?

My question is to complain to the school about this?

So you think war doesn't affect 7 year olds? You haven't watched any Syrian refugee footage then?

That's a very adult way of looking at it, his concept of 'war' has been taught age appropriately and he will likely write a letter about missing his mum.

It's not inappropriate

It's an empathy exercise I think. The kids here do it too for their projects.

Yes - complain to the school. Be that parent. Or you could just let the teachers do what they do and not wrap your precious dumpling in cotton wool for the rest of his life!

I think yabu...A 7 year old could grasp a general feeling of being sad, scared and homesick without having to comprehend the true horror of war. I'd be perfectly happy for my 7 year old to do that homework.

Yes do complain.

It will give them something to laugh about at break.

Agree, it's an empathy exercise. You're being a bit over the top about this one I think.

I don't see why it's inappropriate.

Obviously many atrocious topics affect unlucky people of all ages.

I still don't think talking about going into a battlefield and how you feel is a useful topic for a 7 year old.

Yes YABU. It's a great exercise.

YABU. You have put a v adult perspective into this. He'll probably write about wishing he was at home and how cold & wet his feet are. I also strongly disagree with "shielding" children from reality. There are babies & children going through war right now & I want my DCs to understand how lucky they are to live here & not in Syria/Afghanistan/Iraq.

I remember doing the exact same thing as a child. I'm not scarred for life. Yabu.

YABU, your DS's teacher and school clearly think it is a useful topic.

I think YABU - my 7 year old is about to start a topic on evacuees, they too write a letter home to their parents and do a bit of homework about how kids would have felt. My kids would know what a war is, that people die, that soldiers mightn't come back. They've seen Nanny McPhee (the second one), Chronicles of Narnia. War isn't an alien concept to them.

And also what their great grandfather's generation went through....

The issues around WW1 will be approached in an age appropriate way.

You would be very unreasonable to complain about the homework task.

What has your ds said about it?

I gave ds a book on world history when he was 5 and he soon developed a deep interest in the two world wars so he would love this homework.

They don't see these things in the same way as an adult. Just look at horrible histories!

Would you object if it was based on a roman legionnaire writing about his battle experience? Or one of Henry eighth unfortunate wives?

As long as he does his own homework without any help from home it will be limited to his own already formed concepts so won't be distressing.

Honestly, I'd be surprised if he wrote anything more in depth than "I'm shooting bad guys and being awesome. Miss you mom!". A 7 year old's worse day is forgetting his lunch or getting laughed at. How could they possibly fathom what war is like? I wouldn't worry about him thinking into it at the depth you are, he won't.

I think we've had to write letters like that growing up. None of us ever thought about watching our friends starve to death, seeing our comrades rape innocent women and children, or actually watching the life slip from our best friend's eyes.

Personally, I think the teacher is taking a risk. It opens the door for all sorts of imaginative violence to end up on paper in her homework bin.

I don't agree. If we are to learn from history we need to understand how horrid war is. Such an empathy exercise appropriately done will hopefully stay with them and push our future society away from war. The full horrors of the trenches will not be on the curriculum.

It might be interesting to let him do it alone and see what he produces, without any adult input.

On the other hand, he's 7 and it's a bit of an ambitious piece of homework (that will probably mostly get done by parents anyway). So if you don't want him to do it, then don't.

YABU. Dd1 is not yet 7, but she's already aware of why she can't visit where Baba comes from (Syria) anymore and that she has an auntie and cousins she can't remember meeting. It's life.

I agree OP - 7 is way too young to teach that sort of thing. Evacuees/Carries (?) War - fine, from a child's perspective - but not going off to fight in the trenches.