Teacher showing photos to kids of victorian dead children - slightly disturbing

[whyiwonderwhy]

I am finding this so disturbing I can't sleep! However I might be being oversensitive, who knows. It is the "but - WHY?" bit which is bothering me most.

The lesson was about the industrial revolution, and the subject of photography came up, 2 of the earliest photos were shown to the class (13-14yo) and then....I wish I could say the teacher showed photos of some of the extraordinary engineering inventions of the day, or of busy streets, or China, or something wonderful and extraordinary...but no, the teacher showed 10 photos of dead children and talked about how the Victorians would photograph dead children as though they were still alive, with the rest of the family, in a commemorative way. I have seen some in the past (I didn't learn about it at school however) and they are moving and tragic and disturbing. Nothing else, just these photos.

Just wondering...why? why would the teacher do this? Any ideas?

This teacher has form by the way. A lot of it. But this has for some reason blindsided me.

Why don’t you contact the teacher about it? Ask the relevance to the lesson and what else they will be taught … you’ll probably get a better understanding of the intention of the teaching that way rather than asking a load of random people on here 🤷🏻‍♀️

Poor parents 😢 I can't imagine how hard that loss must have been.

Just finished reading a Germany 1890-1945 gcse book and there are two photos of hangings in there. More graphic than the Victorian photos which just look like normal children. At least OP has a year or so to prepare for this one :)

I remember seeing these pictures and I'm now very middle aged. This is not something new. I was not traumatised by it.
i also remember seeing the aftermath of the brave firefighter who was severely burned. That stayed with me.

It's a bit weird but I was really into horror at that age and had read Silence of the Lambs by age 13.
I would wknder too about the relevance to the subject.

What a fantastic teacher, incredible way to show kids how mortality was viewed during the Victorian era, brings the individual/family aspects out. Social history is, thankfully coming to the fore. If we are to fix the world we need to understand all aspects of the past.
Well done that teacher.

There is nothing disturbing about the photos. A dead child is still a son/daughter/brother/sister.
I googled the photos and can't see the issue.

It wouldn't surprise me if the trend restarted, the younger generation often photograph the hand of their loved ones, next decade, it'll be full on selfie head-shots.

I think it is a bit unusual, @whyiwonderwhy - but maybe the teacher's experience has taught them that photos of the fascinating inventions of that period don't grab the kids' attention in the same way.

As long as your child wasn't upset by it, I wouldn't complain.

@EmeraldShamrock000 - I noticed people photographing the Pope whilst he was lying in state, and at least one person taking a selfie with his body in the background - that did strike me as bizarre and inappropriate.

Don't be stupid.

Anyone else remember learning not to play on train tracks at school?

@whyiwonderwhy, I just googled the images and they are not horrific or macabre. I’d never seen them before.

From just looking at the images and reading a few paragraphs I learned that:

• There are huge cultural differences between then and now and death was part of life, and a lot more elaborate
• Photos and selfies weren’t a thing. Many families wouldn’t have had a single photograph of their child taken, until they died. The death photo was often the only photo they had.
• Victorians believed they could keep a piece of the person, their soul within the photo, which is actually so human, so hopeful and sort of more than I expected of that era.

I found the images to be tender and full of love, loss, pain and hope. The backstory of the photos is often beautiful and not morbid at all.

I honestly thought from your posts it was going to be like seeing the awful images that pop up from countries at war, those devastating images that you don’t ask to see on X. But they weren’t. They are historical, educational and beautiful. Not scary in the least.

So after doing my research, I genuinely think you are being utterly ridiculous.

I remember feeling traumatised when a teacher taught us about pitch capping, during the suppression of the Irish rebellion in 1798.

Barbaric times.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I agree it is inappropriate.

Sometimes a lesson goes in a different way than you planned because of a question from a pupil that the class show interest in. As a teacher, you respond in the moment because you do have the background knowledge to explain the answer. The lesson you originally planned gets shifted into the next slot.

I would imagine a pupil asked about a photograph of the dead Pope and the teacher linked it to the period of time they were studying. This is the ‘art’ of teaching. It’s not just lecturing from the front.

This is interesting, thanks!

Wait till they teach them about the Holocaust. Or any of the more modern genocides.

You’re being ridiculous.

Are you a teacher?

I think this is fine, as long as the teacher says what is about to appear before it does.

I think you are over-reacting. It’s on Horrible Histories. Kids are fascinating by guts and gore.

Yes, and those death photos usually just look like sleeping children. I'm presuming they're not covered in blood and gore. I don't see the problem.

I would find photos of people much more interesting than photos of objects.

"It really isn't a good idea to try to engage children with gruesome stuff."

But those photos aren't gruesome.

Is it more disturbing to show school students photographs of dead Victorian children , photos that their parents have chosen to have taken and have displayed with love as a memorial to their child ( often it would be one of very few photos they ever had taken of their child), or more disturbing to show them photographs taken in Nazi death camps of people who have been deliberately imprisoned ,abused and starved? Asking for a friend.

The teachers follow a curriculum. They don't choose what to show/ teach

Yes, we do.

This I do not believe. Where did she go, to Aldi?

Fucks sake. My hospital suggested I take my stillborn baby for a walk in one of the prams they had, for that purpose, around the hospital grounds.

I can see how they would do this with toddlers too.

Don’t think it’s a big deal. They are old enough to see these pictures. Social history is often more interesting and thought provoking. They will probably remember it more than a picture of a bridge.