To feel uncomfortable about this school trip?

[TheHallouminati]

My son who is 14 and in year 10, is going on a history school trip to Whitechapel to learn about Jack the ripper and take a tour of the area.

I get that there is opportunity for learning about the era in which these crimes took place, such as the an exploration into poverty, the newly formed police force etc etc. But something about this doesn't sit well with me.

I'm finding it hard to articulate, but for me, the big business made out of the murder and mutilation of the most vulnerable members of society by a (likely sexually motivated) sadist is really unpleasant. There are so many sordid tours and museums etc which glorify and focus on the "mysterious" figure of Jack the ripper that it just seems to undermine the truth - that vulnerable women were preyed upon because their only choice was to sell their bodies.

Aibu?

But this is a walking tour of the streets. They get a real insight into Whitechapel at the time of the murders, lots of social and historical context and why conditions at the time made it so hard for the police to investigate. Not sensationalist at all.

Also confused as to why you would have thought JtR wouldn't have been a feature in a module on Crime and Punishment in the 1800s given it was, quite literally, the crime of the century.

Chances are this is not a standard tourist tour - many organisations offer tours which are specifically tailored to exam specifications and designed to be appropriate for the GCSE age group. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a tour targetted at schools covering material on the History GCSE Crime and Punishment unit, rather than just a 'Jack the Ripper stabbed someone here' tour.

I think it would be really interesting.

Sounds great to me. It'll be very informative and relevant to him and what they're studying

I'd understand your concerns if he was 10

Yes, although I haven't been to the area, I know it's fully of shit like that and don't like the thought of the kids seeing that gratuitousness.

Trying to drag a bit more information from my son about the trip. He's lost the letter and there's no online copy.
I'll ask the school which tour they will be using but I'll almost certainly allow him to attend regardless, because I won't have him ostracised. Hopefully, given how widely studied the subject is and that it forms a large part of the Edexcel history GCSE there will be some excellent quality educational tours which handle the subject sensitively.

It may be slightly off topic, but I expect the school have chosen a relatively low cost trip like this (as compared with my GCSE history trip 18 years ago) due to budget constraints. Recently found out that schools in our locality receive the lowest funds per child in the whole country.

Calmed down slightly since first hearing about this trip but it's bothering me still. It's colloquially being called the JtR trip by kids and I feel like that is the overall impression that will stay with them. Not, you know, crime and punishment and Victorian society, Peelers.....just JtR.

Unfortunately, a lot of history is unpleasant.

I can't believe there are so many people who think our children should only be taught the nice, sanitised bits of history!

I learned about JtR when I was younger. If we don't teach our children about these things then they won't know about them.

My eldest did History GCSE and covered this. It didn't occur to me to feel 'uncomfortable' about it. It's a very important time in British History.

Kids latch on to the sensational...it's just what they do. I taught the Great Plague to year 4 and they were OBSESSED with every gory detail...but then, they were also the same about our Science topic on Digestion because there was talk of poo

Ah the perennial blood from a stone discussion with a teenager I'm sure the children will, at this point, be referring to it as the JtR trip but hopefully afterwards they'll be a bit more sensitive.
Am actually a bit surprised your school took your to Auschwitz for a GCSE trip - not because of the relevance etc but because I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for the teachers to anticipate and respond to the pupils emotional responses to the visit. I haven't been (but would appreciate the opportunity) but I can imagine it must have been hugely challenging for all concerned.

I hope your DS has an enlightening and sensitively managed experience...

14s quite old.

I was 10 and used to love all these things ike Madame Tussauds and The Tower of London trips with my mum and family friends (one of whom was a teacher) and their kids for holiday days out but then I was very gory and was fascinated as a child.
I remember seeing the corpses from Jack The Ripper with sound effects, The Manson family, Hitler, Nilsen and The Brides in The Bath Murderer all in Madame Tussauds. The Garotte which was last used in Spain in 1979 and the dummy, different forms of execution.
I learned a fair bit.

Many of the streets near the museum have been totally transformed in the last few years or so and are actually now quite cosmopolitan, particularly around and about Aldgate East station. There's even a Pret and an arty cinema.

my 14 year old went on a school trip.to London and went on a Jack the ripper tour.
I think it was done by the school and not a.commecial one
they made it v educational.and just e Pugh Gore for a teenagers interest.
my daughter loved it

I think a tour of Auschwitz could be seen in the same light. It all depends how it's handled. I don't think we afford avoid the topics altogether though - that would be ding the victims a real disservice.

As pp have mentioned it's part of the Crime and Punishment unit in Humanities for Entry level.

It’s not that history is unpleasant. It’s that JTR’s crimes have been used as a form of entertainment. There are some really awful tourist attractions based on JTR because the murder of women is not taken seriously. If they used the crime and punishment module to address the history of VAWG then JTR would be a great illustration. I guess that element of it will just be taken as read though. So I can understand why the OP feels uneasy.

Thread moved along while I was replying! Nice to see a few of you can confidently state that the material is well handled and that there are some high quality tours aimed at school kids. I appreciate you all putting my mind at ease.

Yes trout, the crime of the century but also a deviant, sexually motivated set of crimes hence my surprise.

I am confident that most children are fairly resilient and will be just fine. We all coped with visiting Auschwitz which is a pretty bleak indictment of humanity.

Been to Auschwitz several times (History teacher), it's a very popular trip. We take year 10. Also the WW1 battlefields, Normandy and Berlin. All emotional in their own way. Last time we were in Poland our kids were quite angry at a group of Israeli teens taking selfies by the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' gate and other tourists wandering around the camp with ice creams.
Point is you'll always get people who behave disrespectfully, even in the most poignant of places.

I wish my school had done a trip like this .
It is history no matter how grim it is and it’s also very interesting

It is a bit weird. In the future will people be touring Gloucester to learn about the Wests?

Nothing left to see, house has gone. I was working nearby while they were excavating very weird time to be in the city, completely macabre it seemed every 2 minutes we had customers coming in saying 'they've found another one' Awful time.

A teacher friend of mine took a group of girls to Auschwitz, on a trip run by a specialist tour company. The tour company laid on a preliminary trip for teachers, so that they knew what to expect, and could decide whether they wanted to bring a group. She said she thought it was a worthwhile trip, she didn't regret going, but it wasn't somewhere she would want to go again. If her school had wanted to repeat it, she wouldn't have volunteered to go. In her school, it was run jointly by the history and RE departments.

myrtle Although I'm a very emotional person and was quite immature at that age I was the only one who didn't break down in tears at some point during the tour. Although I did sleep for about 2 days straight afterwards as it was draining.

I couldn't handle another visit now, something in me has changed as I've aged. I suspect children are ++ more resilient than we give them credit for.

I think there are a few aspects which bother me...

• The way the crime has been sensationalised ever since
• The fact that they were obviously sexually motivated and women were the victims
• The lack of anonymity of the victims and how very personal these attacks were, with crime scene photos and pm details readily available.

Yes, although I haven't been to the area, I know it's fully of shit like that and don't like the thought of the kids seeing that gratuitousness.

Do you mean Whitechapel, OP? It really is just a normal high street.

Took my son and his mate on the Jack the Ripper tour when they were 13, so 3 years ago. We loved it! Absolutely loved it.
Your DS will get a real, raw picture of not so lovely Victorian London. It's a very gentrified area of course nowadays and I was impressed with how much the guide brought to life the grim past of this now 'glossy' part of town. It's definitely not grim and dodgy. It's the city! Lots of suits, lattes, and shiny buildings.
The tour itself is so much more than a 'man goes out and butchers a bunch of prostitutes' type of tour. It really gives you a sense of what life in East London was like in those times. How people lived (mostly in abject poverty). Why crime was endemic in Victorian East London. And the murders are very sad, very human, and very fascinating. Each woman he butchered has a sad, intriguing story.

I agree with you.

I'd feel the same about a school visit to the London Dungeon.

Hopefully the visit will be a lot more than Jack the Ripper, perhaps that murderer will only be mentioned but not dwelt on.

saw that a module was Crime and Punishment in the 1800s but missed the bit about JtR.

This is why I would always recommend to any parent and Year 9 child to fully check the specifications of the GCSE and/or A Level subjects that they are picking. I don’t know why one wouldn’t want to fully know what they are signing up for.