to let DS do school project on Jack the Ripper?

[soupforbrains]

DS is 10. he is bright, loves reading and is a huge history buff.

Summer homework project is "Choose a famous Victorian to learn about and present what you learn in a creative way".

DS wants to do Jack the Ripper, DS is already aware of Jack the Ripper from the Horrible Histories books and some other kids books/shows which have discussed great unsolved mysteries.

I think this is a fun idea, and together we have discussed presenting the finding on a big board like and investigation/crime board. Obviously there will be some glossing over of the details and clearly we're not about to stick crime scene photos up. We've also discussed looking into the living conditions in the east end of london at the time to give more social history learning to it than just the crimes.

I'm not an idiot and I know that this idea is perhaps a bit risky but so long as we do it in an age appropriate and not over gory manner would IBU to let son do this. Additionally would any teachers out there consider it to be interesting and a bit different from the no doubt countless Isambard Kingdom Brunels which turn up, or a step too far?

as brilliant as those images are, I'm afraid they never happened.

AsAlways have you even READ this thread? I changed my mind about DS doing it about 150 posts ago... but you know, you go and huff off if you want to.

Zoya Joseph Lister is on my list (there's a road near us named after him)but I don't know Robert Liston. Will look him up. Thanks.

OP I wish the pearl clutching crowd hadn't put you off, it sounds like it's something your DS was interested in and chose for himself.

Also, the idea there's something wrong with your child for showing an interest in Jack the Ripper, or that you think you're "desperately clever" for taking an interest in your child's homework is pretty pathetic.

I assume PPs school libraries have been scoured to ensure they're free of Horrible Histories or any other age appropriate books which might deal with something other than flowers and fluffy bunnies.

If you're still looking for subjects he could research:

Dr Barnardo, Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur are all basically the fathers of modern medicine as we know it.

Arthur Conan Doyle is fascinating too, if you want someone a bit more exciting.

It's a pity Elizabeth Fry isn't on the fiver anymore. You could've done a great research project based around how few people know what she's actually famous for. She was a social reformer who fought for better conditions in prisons and started a nursing school that inspired Florence Nightingale.

AccrualIntentions - why an amazingly stupid post.

One of those post that makes me want to put on my best ex teacher voice and say "Now go away and have a big think about why it might not be a good idea for 10 year olds to Google "Jack the Ripper". And why some, if not most 10 year olds might not be ready for the conversation about prostitutes and how they were/are viewed in society. And why it's to a good idea for 10 year olds to get the idea that there is something glaourous and exciting about serial killers. And how talking about Jack the Ripper without talking about attitudes to women and violence against women is pointless"

And why it's to a good idea for 10 year olds to get the idea that there is something glaourous and exciting about serial killers

Yeah. That absolutely follows

BabySham Lister, Pasteur and Conan Doyle are all on the list Barnardo I doubt will interest DS but will see.

You're SO right about Elizabeth Fry, I suppose she could still have potential but the fiver would have given it more weight.

"Now go away and have a big think about why it might not be a good idea for 10 year olds to Google "Jack the Ripper".

Well yeah - that's why we don't let 10 year olds Google things unsupervised isn't it?

Bertrand Russell Not nearly as amazingly stupid as the posts suggesting that the OP and her child are somehow disturbed because he's expressed an interest in a topic he's read about in a children's history book.

We obviously take a different view on this. I'm not the only person who thinks it can be tackled in an age appropriate manner. Sorry, your big impressive teacher voice doesn't work on me (I have a better one myself).

MeanAger I'm devastated. You've totally ruined my day.

"Well yeah - that's why we don't let 10 year olds Google things unsupervised isn't it?"

I agree. Sadly some of the parents in the class may not. And I am fascinated to hear how you can deal with a serial killer who mutilated prostitutes in an "age appropriate way" for 10 year olds.

If he wants to do it from the poverty poor living conditions angle. What about Earl of Shafetesbury or the guy who built the Williamson tunnels. From the philanthropist and social reformer angle. Who both indirectly gave people work to keep them from crime.

I don't think anyone looking at the Ripper murders should sanitise what happened, it is massively disrespectful to do that. Nothing 'fun' about it.

Researching Angela Burdett Coutts- then the richest heiress in England- and her lifelong philanthropy would reveal lots of different Victorian issues and problems and how people at that time thought they should be approached. ABC had strong connections to the East End if that is particularly relevant here.

I was going to say John snow (the non gorgeous game of thrones one!) but serf beat me to it.
You can have a big map like John snow did and dots for all the cholera cases including a big gap for those who worked at the brewery and drank beer not water so were drunk but not ill/dead. I think there was also someone rich who specifically liked the taste of the water from the broad street pump (eurgh) who died.
It made a huge difference and we still track diseases and epidemics (epidemiology) in a similar way today.
I hope your ds finds something he enjoys and you find a creative way to present it

fishy i prefer the other alive non GoT Jon Snow personally. Ha.

I've just had a chat with DS. He's not completely sold on any of the suggestions so far although Bazalgette and Snow are both sparking some interest. If I can think of a creative way to suggest to him about how to do them I think he'll be sold.

I suppose the fact that a 10 year old boy is - despite his lack of knowledge about the true facts - fascinated by the story of a man who brutally killed sex workers shows how far our culture continues to normalise (and even celebrate) violence against women. And that not just males but women also take this for granted.

I think one of the most interesting ways of looking at history is to look at the way history becomes the narrative of dominant groups and that the stories of the oppressed are not told. But I think stories of misogyny and the glorification of male violence are perhaps a little beyond the comprehension of the average 10 year old. Though it is always good to introduce them to ideas of power, inequality and 'alternative facts.'

fishy also ive long been an advocate of beer being better than water

Here's a good site on the cholera John Snow.

www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/fatherofepidemiology.html

And part two:

www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/fatherofepidemiology_part2.html#TWO

Your son could print the map showing the graphs of death rates, show a picture of the pub near where the pump was and discuss whether it was the map or his persuasive powers that made the powers that be listen to his germ theory as opposed to the miasma theory.

And then show the decades later actual organism that proved his theory definitively. So, lots of good graphics to work with.

I agree. Sadly some of the parents in the class may not.

I must confess to being a little confused as to why a child can't research something that they are interested in and that other children won't see because some hypothetical parents aren't parenting properly with regards to screen time.

Although I do like the idea of promoting the study of a famous woman. If not Mary Anning, how about Ada Lovelace, mathematician and computer inventor?

Scientific (?) or at least historical fact!! The beer saved those men's lives!!

I'm glad you're looking for another figure. I'm a year six teacher and would have big problems with this. Although to be honest I'm a bit eyebrow face about adults being so interested in it too.

I haven't read the whole thread but i definitely wouldn't want my child doing a project on Jack the Ripper mainly because no one actually knows who he was.