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?

no-one has named the tour anything though cheery - except the children which is probably to be expected. The school have probably sent out information saying they are doing a history visit as part of the Crime and Punishment element of the GCSE - which includes a focus on Whitechapel and inner city crime/policing.

It will be part of the Crime and Punishment section of history GCSE - with a focus on inner city crime and punishment.

Jesus. I did Britain and Europe 1870-1945 with a special paper on the Russian Revolution for history O level.

No wonder Brexit happened.

But the tour is actually called " Jack the Ripper" tour. It exists and is very popular, it's just lazy intellectualism, to not rename it as " Lurid London Loviees' Obvs no one organising that tour has a clue re historical naming.

But you don't know that is the tour the school is taking is the point I'm trying to make.....

I wouldn't have an issue with this. But tbh by that age, I was already reading about serial killers including Jack the Ripper.
History has a lot of violence in it. It's also interesting how globally things were changed as a result of some serial killers.
I would have prefered to go somewhere like this instead of walking around the streets looking at different windows and buildings.
Although did go to the York dungeon with school when I was about 12 and that was really interesting. But the rest of the time it was focusing on buildings for historical trips and tbph it was dull.

There are tours called that Cheery but you have no evidence that that is what they are doing. There are also 'Crime and Punishment GCSE' tours.

I liked this article.
broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/ywqnpj/alternative-jack-the-ripper-tour-london?utm_campaign=sharebutton

I do worry about the way JtR is covered on TV etc. There's an element of mysogynistic voyeurism to a lot of it. The focus on him vs the women he killed. 'How did he get away with it?' 'But who was he?' I'd want to know more about the angle the trip was taking.

An example of a Whitechapel tour that focuses on this segment of Crime and Punishment part of GCSE (sub section Whitechapel: Crime Policing and the Inner City) - yes there is a section on the Whitechapel murders/Jack the Ripper but it is part of a wider context...

(should add I have no idea about the quality of this particular tour company but its an example of how a tour can be more than just Jack)
angliatours.co.uk/content/uploads/2017/01/Anglia_Inserts_Whitechapel_2018_V3.pdf

My son did a similar JTR tour on his History trip to London and says it wasn't salacious, it was very factual and he learned a lot about life in the Victorian East End. He also went to the Imperial War museum, Tower of London and to the theatre. His fabourite part of the trip was the Premier Inn they stayed in.

@TatianaLarina

"Jesus. I did Britain and Europe 1870-1945 with a special paper on the Russian Revolution for history O level.

No wonder Brexit happened."

😂 isn't that the truth. Tories' ambition to dumb us down.

myrtle, my teacher friend used that company for WW1 battlefield trips. She thought very highly of them.

I'm looking at this tour. It"s specially tailored for schools, has plenty of historical context, and doesn't seem sensational at all.
www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com/private-tours/

alansfoot, I think bringing kids on tours for 20 years in London gives me some sway here.'Crime and `Punishment" tours, brilliant, as it does not give it the title or name of the killer. A huge part of educational thinking is names, historical restorative if you want. Educators have a responsibility and why not name it after the victim? Because you just wouldn't it's bad taste etc so why give more glory to the killer? I have no problem with any tour but by giving it the name of the killer is merely giving more attention to them rather than the victims. For fucking thick example would you go on a tour of Portugal called 'Little Murdered Maddy'?

I think this sounds awesome! I'd have loved to go at that age! (Still would now!)

I went on a Ripper tour and maybe it was our guide but it wasn't salacious, more about how shocking it was and how London was thrown into panic. Moving between locations gave a sense of the reality of it and the guide gave really good context of Victorian London of the time. The sights and smells etc. It was more historical not entertainment. Depends on the tour guide you get!

I wouldn't have a problem with my dd going. She is 13 and came home very upset yesterday at being shown mass graves of the Holocaust but as others have said it would be wrong to just reach them the nice bits of history.

YABU. It will be a great opportunity to learn what life was like back then as alansleftfoot has articulated.

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.

I used to live in Whitechapel, well, Aldgate, which is directly next door.
It is like any other area on that end on London.
If you are not looking/ know where to look, you see nothing Jack The Ripper related.

The only think that would worry me is him venturing to a cereal hipster buffet for lunch.

There is lots or art and history to be seen. Markets etc.
Art Museum, University, street markets, London Hospital..
Maybe avoid Brick Lane, he can obsessed about that in his 20s

Cheerymum are you sure you're a teacher?

I think bringing kids on tours for 20 years in London gives me some sway here

It gives you zero sway.

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

I wasn't being flippant when I said that. These crimes changed the face of policing in Britain, which was woefully lacking until JtR. Please look at the curriculum, even a quick glance at a GCSE History revision guide will show you what is covered on the topic and how it is covered. It's not a gorefest, sensationalising sexual violence.

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

Sorry, how can you possibly know that?*

Because, Safeguarding.

*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!

Only no one has actually said that -- those who expressed discomfort at the beginning did so at the idea that the children were being taken on one of those sleazy tourist gorefest JtR tours which make capital out of the details of the mutilation and murder of vulnerable women, and were reassured that this tour is more educational and historically-contextualised than that.

No one would suggest children shouldn't study the Holocaust, but there's a difference between doing an official tour of a concentration camp, or listening to a talk by a camp survivor and the Jackass Auschwitz Grossout Tour (which I just invented, but which you can easily imagine, focusing on the details of different mass murder techniques and Mengele's horrifying experiments just to give participants cheap thrills etc).

OP has stated that it's a tour of Whitechapel, in the context of the C&P module they are studying for GCSE, and that the children THEMSELVES are referring to it as The JtR Trip...this is what children do, focus on the bit that is most exciting to them.
It is unlikely that they are going on one of the gory, tacky commercial tours.

Cross post with Parthenope

Libby why wuestion Cheery's profession? I thought her points were very relavent tbh.