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.

Hmm I'm really torn on this one. On one hand I cab see why someone would he upset. On the other I remember how much I enjoyed class discussions on more adult topics that other teachers woukd never dream of such as abortion hiv/aids sex euthanasia.

People talk about "getting down with the kids" but maybe it's more about pushing kids to think about things, to trust them with topics and tasks that people kept hidden from kids and never have them the chance to discuss in a safe environment.

This would have been a task I enjoyed. Because it's an honest one. One where you would be pushed to think about your actions and their affects on others.one where you are almost relieved to have it acknowledged that life isn't all sunshine and puppies. And a task which allowed you to explore the darker sides of texts that perhaps haven't been discussed before.

Pengggwn - it is very different, yes. And I feel more sorry for the teacher now too.
Although I still don't know what a SOW is. Schedule of work?

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

Yes, it is different. The teacher asked the students to do the first thing, not the last thing. I've no idea where you extrapolated the rest from.

Ill judged work, feel sorry for her.
'Vile bitch' with a sadistic streak'
nope, not really

Think also the fact it should be made more clear it was meant to be a suicide note from lady Macbeth, not just a random suicide note.

In the light of the update- not even remotely ill judged.

I wonder if it would have been better set as an in-class group or whole-class activity, rather than as a solo homework one?
You'd probably have more luck prompting them to use evidence from the text, and avoid, or at least be able to make visible and discuss, the more 'triggering' aspects...

I am an English teacher. I believe passionately that one of my most important jobs, after teaching pupils the functional literacy skills that they will need as adults, is to introduce them to great literature which deals with some very difficult subjects.

In an ideal world, children would encounter pain, loss, illness and violence only in fiction before experiencing it in real life. In reality, this is impossible. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that discussing these topics in the context of a great text, in the safe environment of a well-managed classroom, is an inoculation of sorts. We can never fully prepare pupils for loss or bereavement, for example, and we would not attempt to, but there is some comfort to be derived from the realisation that others have survived these experiences.

I don't think that this is quite what was going on here. The task may have been ill-judged. What I think we can probably all agree upon is that the parent in question lost all moral authority when they went to the press.

I think it's important for teenagers to discuss difficult issues, and the statement from the school seems to suggest that it was an explanation of lady Macbeths motives, rather than an actual note.
But if it was an actual note then I think it's a massive error in judgement. At that age I was drinking heavily, self harming every day and considering suicide on a regular basis, and an activity like that would have had a terrible effect on my mental health.

Okay, as the suicide note had to be written in character as Lady Macbeth that completely changes it imo

Yes if from Lady Macbeth then more appropriate. I would probably have given an option of another essay title as well.

Good grief, so the poor teacher did absolutely nothing wrong. They had to write in character.

The Telegraph and the Sadface Mother should be made to apologise to the teacher.

This is the sort of shit that actually might send someone over the edge. Setting a perfectly legitimate piece of work, praised by Ofsted no less, for your students and having some dreadful parent after her 15 minutes of tawdry fame running to the press.

Disgusting.

"So much venom for teachers on mumsnet. Why?"

Because many of us have come across teachers who use their position to abuse their power over children. It can't be that much of a revelation, that some people go into jobs where they can exercise quite a lot of power over other people, because they are abusive people. There are some in any profession where there is power to be exercised: teaching, nursing, care work, police, etc. Luckily the majority of people who go into those jobs, go in because they unequivocally want to do good, but it surely can't be a surprise that there are a minority who get a real kick from abusing their position and knowing they can get away with it.

If you remember it from school, or can see that your child is one of the victims of one of those people, chances are you will feel a bit venomous about them. I think the thing about teachers, is that all but a very tiny proportion of home educated people, have experience of them, unlike catholic priests, care workers etc.. - most of us have never been arrested, so we haven't experienced abusive police officers and have no strong feelings about them, but most of us have been to school and/ or sent our children to school, so have experienced abusive teachers. Not because there are more of them than in any other profession, but just because we're more likely to meet them. Hence all the venom IMO.

In this particular instance, I can't really see what she's done wrong. This is a storm in a teacup which should have been sorted within the school/ with parents, and it's been spun as a news story because news outlets are desperate for clickbait. YANBU to feel sorry for her IMO.

The Telegraph claims that the task 'caused outrage amongst parents', clearly implying that multiple families complained. The school statement and the original article in the News Shopper make it pretty clear that it was a sole complaint from one mother - presumably the same person who went to the press.

That on its own is pretty irresponsible reporting. I'm going to complain to IPSO - here is the link if anyone else wants to do the same.

Then perhaps those posters who called the teacher in question a 'twat' and a 'vile bitch' with a 'sadistic streak' could have a word with themselves.

Awww jeez, it's been a while since I've been compared to a Catholic priest paedophile. Thanks hun.

Thanks for the link Leanne, I will.

That telegraph article s really misleading. It sounds like it's the children writing their own suicide note to relatives when it's actually getting into the head of lady Macbeth.

I have totally changed my mind-there's nothing wrong with that task.

ah, with the new explanations I take back my prev. post and agree with Vintage that the papers who did not make this clear should be made to apologise.

it was not beyond the realms of possibility that discussions of Macbeth could have moved into a more personal exercise about suicide- which would have been inappropriate

but as that didn't happen papers should have made that clear

The teacher did nothing wrong in my opinion, even Ofsted found the approach the teacher took worthy of praise.

Macbeth is my favourite Shakespeare play, we were taken to see it at Stratford-on-Avon and I can still remember the haunting scene when MacDuff's family were killed. Our teacher never shied away from discussing all the challenging themes within MacBeth and the even more macabre and horrific ones within Titus Andronicus, it's what good teachers do and has instilled in me a lifelong love of Shakespeare and other classic literature.

Poor teacher for being maligned so inappropriately.