To feel sorry for this teacher

[limestrawberry]

Teacher sets homework to write a suicide note, based on Macbeth.

Terribly, terribly ill judged and misguided. But surely an apology is enough rather than this making the national press.

What was the teacher thinking ?!?!

Yabu, what a twat!

I imagine it was a (very) badly judged attempt to get down with the kids ...

If students can't be approached with ANYTHING other than "safe" subjects then how will they use their imaginations fully?

What about all the other important emotive issues?

Racism
Sexism
Rape
Violence

Can they not be asked to imagine things related to those?

First GCSE exam my Dd sat this summer:
Suicide is wrong - discuss (12 marks)
It was the big essay question so had to write about her personal view. She has lost someone close to suicide recently. How the 'Ethics paper examiners ' thought this was a good essay question to set is beyond me. Don't know how she got through the exam to be honest. I would have had to walk out. She did Macbeth, Jekyl and Hyde (another suicide), a strangulation poem (all English GCSE) and lynching (History GCSE). She needs a '9' grade in perseverance.

I imagine it was a (very) badly judged attempt to get down with the kids
I would agree.

I think it's totally poor judgement.
But I'm not too surprised. There are people in teaching who still cling and chase the idea that you can engage and hook students by being cool and edgy. It may be that the teacher involved has felt pressure to engage their class / insert any cliché here.
I'm just waiting to hear that somebody has used that 13 reasons why as a "hook" to "engage" their gcse class with An inspector calls.

Should add, I have no issues teaching challenging issues. Literature is full of them.

I'm just not a fan of teaching it through shock appeal / in a trivial entertaining manner.

Yes, 13 reasons why went through my mind as well I fucking HATE that book but since it's come on Netflix suicide has become 'topical.'

I hadn't heard of it until one of my y11 boys came in and said he thought I might have watched it because 'it's basically a new inspector calls'.
We've covered mental health and self harm in tutorial too and it was mentioned by pre teens who I don't think should have seen it.

I think there is a group of staff who would use most popular ideas/topics as a hook e.g. find the angle in the fidget spinner, Pokemon Go for geography, 13 reasons why etc. When you chase engagement factor I think it risks situations like the task set in the article.

Really King?

I showed Blackfish to some Y8s to introduce the idea that just as adverse surroundings can affect animals, so they can people ... it quite upset some of them, though

So much venom for teachers on mumsnet. Why?

Vile bitch. Hideous. with a sadistic streak
I'm sure someone got up in the morning an deliberately thought they'd plan a task just to deliberately upset children.

I think it was a silly thing to set buy your response seems bizarrely personal and nasty.

My kids had to discuss puppy farms. The pictures were hideous. Also history was not for the faint hearted

Maisy yeah ... and I think at the beginning of your career mistakes like that do happen (or they did for me anyway.)

I don't know, of course, it could be someone horrible but more likely it's going to be some 23 year old who is now probably going to have to resign from her post.

Asking children to draft a suicide note?

How can that be interpreted as anything other than nasty??

If students can't be approached with ANYTHING other than "safe" subjects then how will they use their imaginations fully?

A fellow student had commited suicide previously.....

Puckered not really, apart from KingJoffreys weird post most of us seem to agree it was badly judged.

But I think in different circumstances the Head would have had a serious word with the teacher and she may have emerged sadder and wiser, a salutary lesson if you like. Once something is out in the press though it's hard to move on form it.

My post isn't weird.

Imagine cleaning your child's room and finding that homework. You'd be beside yourself.

I think there is a group of staff who would use most popular ideas/topics as a hook e.g. find the angle in the fidget spinner, Pokemon Go for geography, 13 reasons why etc. When you chase engagement factor I think it risks situations like the task set in the article.

I don't agree with the point that using things the kids are interested in as a hook is a bad thing. You just need to use your common sense about whether it's a good idea or not. I can't see how any teacher (I am one) thought that setting writing a suicide note was a sensible thing to do.

Well, I'd be that my child wrote his suicide note in his English book!

It was very, very badly judged, foolish, naive and misguided.

But I do not think for a moment the intent was to cause harm.

Also, it mentions 'over sixty pupils.'

It's possible that the teacher has two classes in the same year group but it sounds like it could be part of the SoW.

But I do not think for a moment the intent was to cause harm.

I agree-it was spectacularly insensitive though and any reasonable person would have seen that the students and their parents might be quite upset at being asked to do it.