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?

I think it's so important that teenagers learn about the grim parts of History - and how women were treated in the past. There are lots of educational tours done very well, and I can't imagine the teachers will have booked on something that is sensationalist tourist tat.

We experienced that too alan. Tourists taking photos (not selfies in those days though!) by gas canisters and the crematoriums.

I'm pretty sure we did something similar at school. It was just a day out.
Grim though, to think that many years from now there might be a Yorkshire Ripper/Fred and Rose tour. I hope not.

By the way, audience members were given lots of warning about the photos and were invited not to look if they did not want to. The photos were not held up for all to see but passed around the group and you didn't have to take the folder and look inside if you didn't want to. There was nothing gratuitous or heavy-handed about the tour. The guides running these tours are very sensitive and exceptional in their professionalism. Our guide was amazing. If I recall correctly, ours was a historian who was collaborating on a project with a distant relative of one of the victims. Incredible.

Grim though, to think that many years from now there might be a Yorkshire Ripper/Fred and Rose tour. I hope not.

What you're missing here is that the Jack the Ripper murders are historical in a way that Fred and Rose West never will be. The WHitechapel murders are set against the Victorian East London landscaper; a rather lawless place where the shadow of the workhouse stretched long. There is a socio-economic backdrop to the Whitechapel murders which justifies it as a school trip.
My DS is doing A level history, where one of the topics is Pitt to Peel and a history of police.

“The content will be age appropriate and relevant to what he is studying”

Sorry, how can you possibly know that?

I've seen pictures of what he did to his victims. It's just awful

Lesson learned Roly , I should have paid more attention to the syllabus although I would never try and steer my son away from a subject because aspects made me uncomfortable. When I comp

Note I use the term "uncomfortable" not "disgusted" "horrified" or "stricken." I'm just examining my own feelings on it, and was wondering how others felt. It's been helpful and interesting to hear how others feel.

I'm glad you guys have informed me a bit - I googled JtR tours and saw lots that were salacious. I know the area will be a regular street but didn't want Ds seeing skanky looking adverts for grim tours every two feet. Glad it's not like that.

Sounds like a really interesting trip

IAmAlwaysLikeThis
Because if it's booked with a school tour provider it has to be or schools won't use them. As previously said school tour operators tailor their trips to GCSE specs.

I am teacher and have been on many many trips. No way on this earth would I bring children on a trip that makes money out of rape, murder and abuse. NO WAY would I allow any child to on it.

It's making light of horrific abuse. No just no. And believe you me I have taking many children on every trip imaginable but NO!

It's a great tour, so interesting and brings history to life....... do you live in cotton wool?

I took history to a level and all the major events we learnt about - revolutions, wars, the holocaust, slavery etc - involved the deaths of hundreds if not millions of people. We visited museums and saw exhibitions related to this, that people consider to be everyday tourist attractions. Why do PPs consider Jack the Ripper to be different? Is it the content of the exhibition?

How on earth do you know that "it makes light of horrific abuse" cheerymom You don't. You don't know the details of the trip and how it should link to the GCSE syllabus.

Its not even dark tourism is it? Imagine a Nazi Tour or a Death Tour? It just does not exist. Trips to places of genocides etc are not named after they who did it? I am horrified by JTR tour. And I have taken teenagers to
Auschtwitz, didn't called it the Hitler tour. I thin it is vert educationally lazy to allow this.

I’ve taught this subject and you would be amazed at how into it the kids get!

At first, I thought I was teaching a bunch of futurenpsychopaths but they actually have great empathy at that age. They did enjoy the blood and gore aspect, the sexual part of the crimes was not discussed (in my class, anyway), and it is a subject which has ramifications that can be easily traced through to the present day.

I do wonder about the person that chose to put it into the curriculum but it really doesn’t work. Your son will probably quite enjoy this module.

*does work.
It really DOES work!

“Imagine a Nazi Tour or a Death Tour? It just does not exist”

Such tours absolutely exist.

Actually myrtle I do because I worked as teacher in London for 20 years and a friend of mine did that tour and I will object to giving it the killers name. So I do know what I'm talking about. I have NO problem with doing tours of historical interest in fact I encourage it. can you see my point?

FFS the children are calling the trip the JtR trip because - they are children, some commercial tours may label it as a JtR tour - but sensationalist marketing has always existed but we have no evidence to suggest the school are calling it the "JtR tour where Jack slashed up some whores"

“Because if it's booked with a school tour provider it has to be or schools won't use them”

Schools don’t always get it right though.

You - indeed we - don't know what tour the OPs school is doing - or indeed if it is an external tour or managed by the school

From a respect point of view, I have taken teenagers to death camps, weeks of preparation, not called, 'Victory over the Jewish Rats" tour, I have taken teenagers to the Somme and Flanders, again weeks of preparation, and not called " Look at the Young Men Dying Fodder Fools", tour. So why name this after the perpeators rather than the victims????

So my child is going on the "Women raped and murdered" tour?