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?

Spot on Tumble

University masters age is very different to a year 6 primary class of 10 year olds, boysofmelody.

How will you explain the fact that all his victims were women? Leaving aside the prostitution angle, you want to talk about poverty (which I get), but isn't this also glaringly obviously about Victorian attitudes to women? That isn't judging - I'm just honestly curious.

I think the way you suggested presenting it sounds fine, and bringing in aspects of social history, looking at photos and discussing living conditions makes it much more interesting than just another biography and a list of dry facts about a person who died a hundred years ago. Children really do love gory stuff and I'd be very surprised if a class of ten year olds hadn't already heard of Jack the Ripper.

A way round it though may be to claim that actually it's a biography of Inspector Abberline - start with the dry facts, he was born blah blah, he lived blah blah, he became a police inspector blah blah - and then launch into his most famous case.

Charles Booth interactive poverty map here:
booth.lse.ac.uk/map/14/-0.1174/51.5064/100/0

Why not have a look at Robert Peel instead? He established the metropolitan police among other things, that could expand on his interest in things crime related and into other areas e.g. extension of the franchise, industrialisation. At the time he was in politics was a really interesting era in British history. (I find the whole business of the corn laws fascinating although it may be a bit of a stretch for a 10 yr old). There's plenty of child friendly resources on the web.

There were so many great philanthropists in the Victorian age. I'd pick someone like Barnado (same area of London, same social aspects can be covered by the project) over the Ripper.

Barnado was not a great philanthropist, he was as dodgy as fuck, a self-publicist of the self order, whose 'child rescue' practices raised eyebrows even then and his exploitation of the children in his 'care' was a bit of a shocker.

I wouldn't let my child do this.

Jack the Ripper was a violent serial killer. If you wouldn't let your 10 year old do a school project on Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, how is this any different?

I'm not sure how you're going to be able to gloss over the bad bits, I've just had a quick look at the Wiki page, one bit describes about a blunt object being inserted into a woman's vagina. Surely your son will have to read up about the whole thing, pretty grim.

DS2 is 10. I wouldn't do this topic with him. If you strip out what the women did and the horrifying nature of the violence then you are sanitising the context to the point of meaninglessness.
I would not be impressed if my DS came home from school and started searching for Jack the Ripper because of another child's project.

If he's not even to know those women were prostitutes, I don't see how he can do any research of his own on Jack the Ripper without you having pre-selected, edited and presented the material to him in age-appropriate words. In fact, without you writing his project. How much will he learn from that?

"before we begin the actual work."

Jeez-he's 10-let him do the work about a more suitable subject.

YABU.

Jack the Ripper? What are you thinking?

Sweeney Todd would be sooooooooo much better!!

University masters age is very different to a year 6 primary class of 10 year olds, boysofmelody.

Shit, why did nobody tell me before I wrote my dissertation in wax crayon and included a drawing.

The point remains that there are so many aspects to the Whitechapel murders that don't focus on or fetishise the sexual violence and can be presented in an appropriate way for a young audience. For example, looking at the case from the perspective of Insp Fredrick Abberline is a good one.

You own follow up post OP you said you would 'just' say "he cut them open with a knife". That still sounds inappropriately violent despite being a 'diluted' version of what he actually did to them.

Would he consider Florence Nightingale at all? If he's read Horrible Histories he might be familiar with the Crimean war and the gory medical side, maggots etc?

Grace Darling? Or my personal hero Joseph Bazalgette?

And you do sound very invested, OP!

Skimming over the fact that the women were prostitutes only raises more questions for a curious child, surely? 'Why were they walking on their own in a dangerous area? Why did no one come to help them? Why didn't they shout and run away when the creepy man approached?'

The point remains that there are so many aspects to the Whitechapel murders that don't focus on or fetishise the sexual violence and can be presented in an appropriate way for a young audience. For example, looking at the case from the perspective of Insp Fredrick Abberline is a good one

KS2 topic work requires an overview, not aspects.

I was really interested in Jack the Ripper and all of his poor victims and I studied it alot when I was 13,I'm not sure what my school would have said though if I was 10.

Yeah OP - great idea. Make the brutal murder and mutilation of prositutes fun and age appropriate! Just gloss over any of the bits that don't fit in with your narrative. After all, it works for holocaust deniers.... FUN!

The more I think about this, the less I can see it working. How can you miss out the fact that the women were prostitutes?

The whole history of the times and what happen to these women was tied up with their hopeless lives and the poverty they endured.

Whitewashing their 'profession' out of the project would completely miss the whole history. It's not modern times, only women living in abject poverty would have been walking the streets.

How on earth can that be made age appropriate.

YANBU for letting him do a project on Jack the Ripper. Looking at things like class/poverty at the time and developments in policing since then sounds good. I would expect a lot of the class would already be familiar with some unsavoury characters - possibly including Jack the Ripper - through things like Horrible Histories.

On the other hand, I think you need to remember it's your DS's project and not yours. Teachers can tell when the work was mainly done by parents.

Have we helped at all OP?