DD being asked to design a torture method for homework??

[milkysmum]

DD has been set her history homework for this week. She has to design a ' new Tudor Torture device'. Draw it, label it etc and explain why it would be more effective than previous know torture devices! AIBU that this is a bit unnecessary? They are year 8. Do they really need to be encouraged to think of new ways to torture people!?

@DragonMovie

Wonder how the London/York/Edinburgh Dungeons stay in business given that most people on this thread feel so strongly about this being inappropriate.

There is a difference between learning about history and the inhumane way people have been treated and being asked to think about new ways to torture people in the Tudor fashion. Torture is still used around the world, it is not some archaic practice that only the Tudors indulged in.

Devising torture methods is "just a bit of fun."

rsf.org/en/news/chilling-account-radio-france-fixer-who-was-kidnapped-and-tortured-russian-soldiers-ukraine

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/28/ukraine-government-investigates-video-alleged-torture-russian-prisoners-of-war

OP. I would absolutely refuse to let your DD do this.

Torture is still widely practiced all over the world - what a terrible idea.

How. How do you imagine teachers are SUPPOSED to teach children about the absolute depravity other humans will imagine to inflict pain, all in the name of their land, faith or wealth?!! History teachers will probably spend most of the follow up saying "everything you thought of has been done to humans". If children don't learn, aren't horrified then they'll be like posters on here not believing the torture that goes on now in the world.

I'd have enjoyed history lessons a hell of a lot more if we had done this. I only remember the Treaty of Versailles. Lots and lots and lots of droning on about the Treaty of Versailles.

It's history, torture is part of our history and sadly our present too.

To remove torture suggests the Tudors just flounced around in their finery having slight disagreements with churches and not being very good at that married life lark.

To remove torture suggests the Tudors just flounced around in their finery having slight disagreements with churches and not being very good at that married life lark

I don't think anyone has suggested children should be taught about the Tudors with the nasty bits removed. It is the way that the homework has been set which is somewhat off-key.

@Pazuzu

I'd have enjoyed history lessons a hell of a lot more if we had done this. I only remember the Treaty of Versailles. Lots and lots and lots of droning on about the Treaty of Versailles.

It's history, torture is part of our history and sadly our present too.

To remove torture suggests the Tudors just flounced around in their finery having slight disagreements with churches and not being very good at that married life lark.

@Pazuzu

Just to be clear you would have enjoyed figuring out how to slowly and more painfully dislocate bones from sockets, how to tear muscle and ligament tissue off the bones of another human?
A better way to slowly burn the skin off a screaming human?

My kids love horror stuff, would love this task

@Pazuzu

I'd have enjoyed history lessons a hell of a lot more if we had done this. I only remember the Treaty of Versailles. Lots and lots and lots of droning on about the Treaty of Versailles.

It's history, torture is part of our history and sadly our present too.

To remove torture suggests the Tudors just flounced around in their finery having slight disagreements with churches and not being very good at that married life lark.

Well if you do remember the Treaty of Versailles, you'll also remember why it was a huge factor in causing WW2 and the mass torture and death that ensued from that.

A far more appropriate homework would have been to get the children to research the factors behind torture. Not the actual torture.

My kids love horror stuff, would love this task

I know we're all different but this sentence would make me very sad to type.

I wouldn't like it and I'd be unhappy with my child being forced to access such a dark part of her imagination. Surely they could have designed siege defenses or something where at least your defending yourself but I'm guessing that's more medieval.

It’s difficult to see where the teacher is going with this.

It may well be part of a larger learning arc which will culminate in an understanding of how atrocities are made possible through dehumanisation. Perhaps tricking the children into gleefully engaging with torture is part of the process.

If this is the case I hope the teacher has an exceptionally good understanding of their students, because it has the potential to go very wrong. Have they thought about how they will deal with the child who invents a rape-machine? Or the child who figures out that the best way to extract information will be to torture their children?

@PineForestsAndSunshine

It’s difficult to see where the teacher is going with this.

It may well be part of a larger learning arc which will culminate in an understanding of how atrocities are made possible through dehumanisation. Perhaps tricking the children into gleefully engaging with torture is part of the process.

If this is the case I hope the teacher has an exceptionally good understanding of their students, because it has the potential to go very wrong. Have they thought about how they will deal with the child who invents a rape-machine? Or the child who figures out that the best way to extract information will be to torture their children?

Exactly. This is a topic that requires close oversight by the teacher. An open-ended activity like this is not just tasteless, it raises the potential for really disturbing ideas to be generated without the teacher's control.

@Ericaequites

What’s wrong with dates, facts, and biographies for homework?

Tbf that sounds really dry and dull. At school I was convinced I hated learning about history because we were taught it in such a dull way, as an adult I've discovered it's far more interesting than remembering a series of dates.

In my opinion, this homework is very inappropriate and I am struggling to see what the learning outcome is in relation to being able to recall historical facts about the methods of torture used. I fully understand why the real methods used should be taught but this task just doesn't support any teaching and learning.

Tbh, 13 year old me would have loved this!!

I was once in Milan wandering around a main square and came across some wooden and metal items, like sculptures. Looked at the labels which gave the name and a picture of each being used, and realised they were pieces of torture equipment!

Teachers do have to be aware of kids' potential individual circumstances. Back in 1988 we were doing a topic on survival in English, and the teacher made sure we were OK with discussions of shipwreck before continuing one piece of work. She said in her previous school she'd gone straight in, only to have one kid in floods of tears because she'd lost a relative in the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster...

@XenoBitch

Wow, how edgy

"Edgy" was not even a thing in the early 90s. My grim beheading homework had me engage with the history lesson.. and surely that is the main thing a teacher wants.. for their pupils to engage and be interested.

I wonder how many of these faux-sensitive parents have bought their # children Horrible Histories, a series whose success is predicated on children loving the gruesome bits best.

Amazing how many people on this thread can't tell the difference between learning about torture and being forced to create a torture method

No one is saying kids shouldn't learn about torture and other terrible things. But you can do that without forcing them to be imaginary perpetrators.

........... stuck in a lift with Angela Raynor. He'd get a gold star for that one.

@dreamingbohemian

Amazing how many people on this thread can't tell the difference between learning about torture and being forced to create a torture method

No one is saying kids shouldn't learn about torture and other terrible things. But you can do that without forcing them to be imaginary perpetrators.

The task looks like it is testing the child's understanding of Tudor torture devices by asking them to come up with something original but fittingly Tudor.

Often the best way to understand something that is incomprehensible to modern humans (such as torture, the concentration camps set up in Poland and Germany in WW2, slavery) is to get inside the heads of the people who supported those acts. On the face of it slavery is outrageous, so why have huge numbers of people supported it throughout almost the whole of human history?

The side benefit of teachers setting tasks like this is that the pupils' submissions can be used to highlight anyone with a particular interest or aptitude for torture and flag them up for closer monitoring by the authorities. A bit like the traditional story which is probably untrue that borrowing certain 'suspect' books from the library got you placed on a government watchlist.

Highly inappropriate.

Another vote for contacting the school and using a rather stern tone.

Not Horrible Histories again. Horrible Histories:

Is for younger kids, for whom looking at this subject seriously would be too much. The cartoonish nature of it is a gentle introduction to a sensitive topic. At secondary school you should be capable of engaging more deeply with subjects like this.

Is educational but coming at it from an entertainment angle. They’re books you read for fun primarily. History at school is not entertainment first and foremost.

Doesn’t encourage kids to develop their own torture methods afaik? I read a precursor as a kid in the 80s and it was descriptive - there was nothing like what the op describes. It’s this element of creativity that is especially disturbing and unnecessary.

No wonder you get threads on here about people mucking about on visits to Auschwitz and the like. There comes a time when it’s reasonable to expect some empathy and dignified treatment in respect of real life suffering rather than a source of fun entertainment and thrills.

This sounds like a really fun & engaging way for kids to learn about history - I loved stuff like this in school! Kids love all that Horrible Histories stuff - can't believe anyone would get worked up about that. If they start asking them to build a torture device & use it on a pet/sibling...then start to worry!

@Isis1981uk

This sounds like a really fun & engaging way for kids to learn about history - I loved stuff like this in school! Kids love all that Horrible Histories stuff - can't believe anyone would get worked up about that. If they start asking them to build a torture device & use it on a pet/sibling...then start to worry!

It doesn't sound fun at all. It sounds like the teacher has issues.