Or is Anne Frank’s diary & other WW2 stuff inappropriate for primary school children

[Lellikelly26]

My DD is in year 3 (8 yr olds) and is studying WW2. I don’t know the extent of what they cover at school but my mum brought round some WW2 diaries including a lady who was in Jersey during it’s German occupation and other accounts of women who helped in the war effort and felt responsible for deaths, with one killing herself. I do not think this is appropriate reading for an 8 year old.
My DM used to read me Anne Frank’s diary as bedtime reading when I was a kid and I have refused to engage in anything to do with the wars since I was so disturbed. I avoided history at school and can’t watch films about it etc.
AIBU or are some accounts of the wars not appropriate for primary age children.

I've taught it in Year 6, DS was Year 3.

YABU. Terrible things happen in the world, its important for children to learn about them. At least they aren't living through it.

For the sake of clarity - the school is teaching her about WW2, and you don’t know the compass of that. (I seem to remember at that age, fwiw, having to doing homework which involved imagining you were an evacuee, and writing home about your experiences). It’s your mother who has brought round some distressing war diaries, and you who have brought up Anne Frank. Riiiiight.

ww2 is year 6 not year 3
i would be very surprised that a y3 child was covering ww2 as part of the curriculum

Actually the curriculum, last time I checked, does not specify any particular topics for any particular age.

Which is why you wind up with some kids studying WWII about three times by the time they leave school.

England needs a proper content-specific history curriculum...

I’m probably going to raise little snowflakes but I think it’s a little young.

That it happened and we have to keep talking and educating doesn’t mean it needs to start at age 8. One of my daughter’s friends developed serious anxiety issues after the Manchester bombing last year. I can understand that.

I let my children read what they want but will be guiding away from Anne Franck until a little older

I personally think learnings about world wars are not suitable for that age and are tackled with more depth and understanding in the teen years. There is so much history to learn about surely 8 year olds would be better learning about earlier history, great fire of London, the plague etc and leave more recent subject until later.

I would not expect primary aged children to read the actual diary, but there are a lot of books about Anne Frank which are written appropriately for year 5 and 6 explaining her story in a way that is both accessible and truthful.

I can’t begin to imagine a more essential topic for primary aged history lessons. Many thousands of children had to live through it. Many more died. Our children need to understand the history to stop it ever happening again. Sadly Trump doesn’t seem to have understood history.
Young children can understand far more than we credit them with. Most children visiting Amsterdam go to Anne Franks house.
No graphic pictures of mass graves are probably not appropriate but that doesn’t stop learning about the politics, the cruelty and the bravery of the wars being important.

Stuff like wars shouldn't suddenly be introduced when kids are older. (Kids play war all the time in the playground). You introduce the topics early but don't deal with every aspect until the kids are ready.

DD did WWII quite intensely in Y6, including speaking to a concentration camp survivor. As DH and I both are
Germans it was always very important to us to teach DD as much as possible in an age appropriate manner and in Year 1 she had a book about evacuees from school.

My grandfather died April 45 and my mum often tells stories about her childhood during the war including g her house being bombed. My FIL was a German child evacuee and lived 2 years in the countryside as Hamburg was destroyed.

DD always understood and it never caused problems. The only time we had to make sure we sat down and worked through books with her was the Concentration camp issues as the library books DD asked for had pictures from the liberation by the US Army in it.

Anne Frank - this is read by lots of Y5 and Y6 in our area. I don’t think it is a good bedtime reading for a 7 year old though. During the day with the parent yes, depending on the maturity of the child.

My DD is 7 and also in year 3 and studying WW2 she is absolutely fascinated by it.

as mentioned there are different editions & they wont be reading the whole book just excerpts - you cant and shouldn't protect your children from everything but why don't you have a chat to the teacher & ask how detailed it is going to be? read the homework with your children &try to explain your view on the war and what happened - children see so much in the news & the media & some of their friends (I bet! particularly if they older siblings) are probably exposed to violent computer games & talk about them at school so you can use this as a way of discussing that too

I have teens but when they were in primary school, the teaching about WW2 was focused on life as a child living in the UK at the time. So they learned about rationing and evacuation. In y5/6 they read Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

At primary school I read, "when Hitler stole pink rabbit" and 'the silver sword'. On TV I watcher 'Carrie's war'.

These are all suitable for children.

Anne Frank's diary has been 'updated' more recently so I have read it twice. The newer version has things that were left out of the first version, things like she thinks her periods are going to start.

When I read it as a child the thing that disturbed me most was that Anne shares a bedroom with a dentist, a man.

I think it is fine to teach it in an appropriate way, and with refugees / war being part of life for so many children it is probably a good thing for the to know about.

It'll be about child evacuations and rationing.

I think YABU. It's not too young as long as it is age appropriate. I first started WW2 in year 4, learning about evacuees, bomb shelters, rations, life in 1940s Britain. Secondary school we did war and Hitler in a bit more detail but I don't remember covering it extensively. I then did A level history and rise of Hitler, then history at university where I studied European fascism. I'm sure those primary history lessons forged my life long interest. I still read a lot of novels based in WW2.

The school isn’t bloody giving her Anne Frank to read, though, is it? We are told this in the first two lines. Prac. Crit. 101 - U (Ungraded).

I think you right, it's totally not appropriate for that age - far too young to hear about nastiness like that :-(

I read Anne Frank's diary at nine, again at ten, eleven and yearly at least until I was about 14. I'd exhausted the school reading system by year 3 and mum met with my teacher to discuss what was suitable to get me from the library, we lived in a small village and I'd read the children's section there too. Teacher recommended it if mum had read it and was happy to have the conversations with me about the historical context, as I was very interested in history and people. I loved that book and the young perspective it was written from. I first visited Anne Frank's house when I was 12 and it really brought it alive for me. It's reality and as long as it's handled in an accurate way there's nothing wrong with that.

She won't be reading Anne Franks Diary.

Most history is horrible, because humans are horrible. What do you suggest they learn in history?

Here WW 2 is on the late primary curriculum. What’s the issue?

Our DD1 is 9 and in year 4. She loves history and loves watching 'Horrible Histories'. And she has learned about World War II. Also my MIL has talked about the Blitz, she lived through it as a small child.

Recently she's been learning about the Tudors and Henry VIII. I taught her the rhyme ''Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived'.

I haven't thought of giving her Anne Frank's Diary, but I wouldn't have a problem her reading it. She's watched 'The Hiding Place', the story of Corrie Ten Boom, who ended up in Ravensbrook after being caught harbouring Jews.

I don't think it's an issue as long as you're prepared to spend time talking to her about it and reassuring her.

It's probably simpler in our case, though, as our DDs are adopted and hence know that bad things happen in life.

PS as others have said already, it is not the school curriculum that is causing the question (though I think WW2is a better topic for y6) but the OPs mother who is bringing round inappropriate books and who frightened the op by reading the Anne Frank diary to her as a bedtime story!

So to answer your question OP some history topics are deemed more suitable for younger children because they can be sanitised and presented as things that happened long ago and far away........ If they were presented in their raw truth many children would be trembling in their beds at night. We have to make choices about how we teach history, and at some point, though perhaps not in Year 3 , we have to factor in discussion about why things happened, and why they could or could not happen again. Tricky though, would you mention modern slavery when discussing how the pyramids were built for example, or equate the religious intolerance shown to Jews in England in the Middle Ages to the religious intolerance shown to Muslims in the 21st century?

Most history is horrible, because humans are horrible. What do you suggest they learn in history?

The plague and the great fire of London
The industrial revolution
Florence Nightingale and Mary Secole
1066
Civil rights in America
The Empire
Colonisation of America & Independence
The Rise and fall of the church
Windrush
…

There is a lot of history. You don't have to pick one of / possibly the most horrific happening of the Holocaust to teach at 8.