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.

Teacher sounds like she has a sadistic streak.

Vile bitch.

What the fuck? What a vile post.

How do you know the teacher is female, by the way?

I wrote a suicide note (in poem form) based on Ophelia from Hamlet when I was a teen. Still here.

I know this is off-topic and hugely inappropriate, given the serious nature of this thread, but Limestrawberry - please tell me this wasn't a typo? " I was planning on getting all the pheasants revolting " and you did actually plan on getting the pheasants to fight back?

Again though - in this particular exercise it seem the teacher was suggesting that the students write the suicide note for themselves, to their own relatives. That's not the same as writing it for Ophelia, or Lady MacBeth, or Juliet, or any of the other Shakespearean suicides.
The latter would be in context and a relevant creative writing task - the former is insensitive and inappropriate.

Go over to the beareavement board and look at how people deal with suicide of someone they really love. Now imagine those people being set that essay. Not blaming the teacher too much - she was naive but some of the attitudes on here are

Bloody pheasants, so revolting, and don't get me started on pigeons...

castle I have lost a loved one to suicide and I would not have had a problem with it. It depends on the person.

If the assignment has been set before AND praised by OFSTED, there may be a discussion to be had, but the problem and blame shouldn't be laid at the individual teacher's feet.

No, I did actually write about pheasants revolting my History teacher was pissing himself!

I had also lost my uncle to suicide- a few years before I wrote my poem. The way my family dealt with suicide was to pretend it never happened. It was never discussed. We children (including my uncle's son), found out through playground gossip. Covering the subject at school was actually wuite therapeutic- even if it happened in an English lesson. Yes some will have personal experience that makes it a topic they don't personally want to explore, but that's true of all the big topics schools cover - sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, abortion. Or should teens not be exposed to these either?

I've written SOW on Macbeth and loads of texts. Literature is about life, death and everything in between. But, I wouldn't have set that essay title, and if I was using another teacher's SOW and that was the title I would have changed it. I recently changed a set title for my year 7's on Boy In The Striped Pyjamas because, knowing the class well I knew it would upset them.

It all sounds like a massive over reaction to a creative writing exercise that was appropriately dealt with by the school at the time. Maybe setting an alternative at the same time would have been appropriate, in case it upset some students, but many will have relished the task and found it a useful way of grasping the psychological drama at the heart of a dark and powerful play.

agree that a suicide note from a fictional character is totally different from that of asking students to do it in their own name to their own family

not only is it going to be horrendously upsetting for anyone with experience of suicide among their nearest and dearest, but there is also a fair possibility that a class will include a student currently contemplating suicide or being egged onto to think about it online

plenty of sites around these days actively encouraging self-harming and suicide and plenty of students getting drawn into this

the last thing they need is a teacher adding their voice to what they are already hearing

when I was young this might have been triggering- which is bad enough

today it might well be taken as a sanction from authority of something that is already being encouraged elsewhere

and I would say a teacher in today's world who is not aware of this must be very naïve

in fact, I find that harder to believe than a teenager who has lost 3 friends to suicide

Cary- what essay title? Do you know what the exact essay title was?

"Yes some will have personal experience that makes it a topic they don't personally want to explore, but that's true of all the big topics schools cover - sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, abortion. Or should teens not be exposed to these either?"

The difference between all those other triggering discussions and writing your own suicide note is that the other triggering discussions are less likely to segue into potentially taking your own life, having thought about it while writing your own suicide note. IMO.

**alpacasandwich
I would have had a real problem with it. We are all different, for example my dad took his own life last year without warning and my kids were very close to him but I have had a miscarriage in the past and it didn't affect me (but I know miscarriages distress others deeply). What is important is the context as others have said and the fact that it is triggering in some vulnerable teenagers.

If writing from the point of view of Lady Macbeth it is a legitimate exercise. You have to understand how she was suffering from guilt, how she was hallucinating - out damned spot etc and couldn't live with herself anymore after having urged her husband to become a cold-blooded killer.
Is it an exercise I myself would set...no, but I can why it was set.
I cannot find any reference anywhere that the pupils were told to do a personal note, where is that being referenced?

As it is, a former colleague of mine who taught RE and was doing a topic on funerals/burial rites, ceremonies etc used to ask pupils to come up with a song list for their own celebration-of-life ie plan their own funeral. One enterprising young man burned her a CD with Green Day time of your life etc on it. Nowadays that would make headlines (she also used to perform a fictional 'wedding' between two volunteers. In fairness, her pupils always seemed to be literally engaged compared with others as I guess jazzing up RE in a religious school was not the norm.

But yes, I feel sorry for the teacher in question. That said, certain topics you do try to avoid/set an alternative eg family trees, you make it clear they can do the Simpsons or the royal family or a made up sleb one rather than their own.

Ginswigmore - it's in the Telegraph article:
More than 60 pupils at Thomas Tallis school, Kidbrooke, London were asked to pen a final note to their loved ones after reading one of the play’s most celebrated scenes, when Lady Macbeth takes her own life.

Asked to pen a final note to their loved ones = write their own suicide note, in my understanding.

Looks like the parent went to the News Shopper, which is the local paper in SE London. Telegraph et al have lifted the story from there.

This is the statement from the school from their FB page:

You may have seen a news item recently that refers to an incident in an English lesson at Tallis. What follows is an official response from Carolyn Roberts, Headteacher at Thomas Tallis School:

“A parent contacted us with concerns about a written exercise given to a class during studies of a play by Shakespeare. The exercise was given to a class who had been studying Macbeth as part of a year 8 English lesson.

“ The exercise was to write a suicide letter from Lady Macbeth to Macbeth explaining her decision to kill herself. The exercise is a well-known method for getting students to understand this dramatic twist in the play. The teacher who set the exercise is very experienced. Indeed, the exercise has been praised at our most recent Ofsted inspection for the progress made by pupils studying the play*.

“We appreciate that the exercise was upsetting to the family and have discussed the subject matter and approach with teaching staff. I met with the parent last week and apologised wholeheartedly on behalf of the school and reassured them about the actions that have been taken. The parent accepted the apology in a meeting that was friendly and cordial.

“We care deeply about the emotional wellbeing of our students and of course wish no distress to be caused to any of our students - all we can do is hold discussions and debates on topics such as these in a supportive and sensitive way. Had we been aware of any students who would have found the exercise upsetting then we would of course have taken a different approach. We have listened to the concerns raised by this debate and will not run the exercise again.

“I apologise again, for any distress that this may have caused to the family.”

We are happy for parents/carers with any concerns to contact Vanessa Cummins, PA to Carolyn Roberts, Headteacher at Thomas Tallis School, who will arrange an opportunity for a full discussion.

*Quote from the Ofsted report:
"In a Year 8 English lesson, students made very rapid progress when they were sharing their ideas about Lady Macbeth's feelings."

You'd like to think that the journo who wrote it might have got the detail from the school involved, wouldn't you, really. But who knows.

Further upthread I have said "IF the task was to write it personally blah blah etc.", as suggested by the article - and given a different opinion IF the task was to write it as a Shakespearean character.

Apposite xpost!

Yes. That's kind of what I meant. Should have been clearer.

Still doubtful as to my clarity - I MEANT that, my post explaining that I had taken 2 different stances on the situation, depending on the actual wording of the task, xposted with the person who found the original - which explained that it had indeed been to write it as Lady Macbeth, and not as themselves, which meant in turn that my opinion based on THAT situation would now stand, not the other opinion based on the assumption that the letter was meant to be personal.