Titanic as a topic for 5/6 year olds?

[Itssinkable]

Would you be happy for your child to learn about Titanic in Year 1 at school?

The pros are teaching about class, climate change, life in the past, engineering.

The cons are so many people die on the same night.

YABU: I'd have no problem with my child learning about Titanic

YANBU: I'd have a big problem with my child learning about Titanic

There is a really good, very thorough podcast about it on BBC Sounds at the moment which looks at the public enquiries carried out after the disaster as well as what happened. Just in case anyone is interested.

I think kids can handle it. It's a lesson in social history, engineering, maritime safety, the limits of technology, cancel culture. Even physics is in there- they only recently understood the weather conditions at the time would have created some distortions to the appearance of ships in the distance.

They only had white flares, if I recall correctly, which were for celebrations. Red flares were to indicate distress. Another example of their hubris, sadly.

They learn about events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally in year 1. It won't be about class so much. More that than this thing happened and a boat sank. They'll probably learn about icebergs, float and sink, probably make some junk modeling boats and test materials for floating and waterproofing, and they'll learn the names of continents and oceans.

Such a catalogue of different things that lead to such a catastrophic end, it really is important to learn about. It’s had me gripped for years.

I teach reception and one of my pupils was really interested in The Titanic so I found a book for him which he really enjoyed. He was interested in the fact the cheaper bedrooms were lower down meaning those people were trapped in the sinking. His interest in it showed me that he was able to process the information.

Really enjoying reading all your different views. Thank you.

What's your view op?

I think it's fine. My daughter done Titanic just a little bit later than that there wasn't really a focus on the deaths. It wasn't some comprehensive telling where they would be expected to understand everything we understand about it - it's a knowledge they can build on as they get older.

Is it something the class are interested in? What is the learning driver? I don’t like any ‘doing the…(Ancient Greeks/Rainforests/Victorians)’ topics as they tend to be driven by activities rather than skills and focused content that is relevant and contextual.

If the Titanic was covered as part of a wider inquiry, such as, ‘what can we learn from disasters?’ or ‘what would be the best vehicle to explore the polar regions?’, then I can see more reason to study it.

But you can cover the same topic at different stages in your school life. I grew up near the plague village and we learnt about the plague in infant, junior and secondary school. My knowledge and understanding changed as I grew older.

My 3 yo is obsessed with boats and the sea. He has lots of books about shipwrecks and knows all about the titanic! We watch lots of diving documentaries about wrecks etc which he finds fascinating (amongst tractors/race cars/farms etc!) Do you ever explain even vaguely to your child what goes on in other places in the world? On the news etc? Surely they know what death is to some degree and that suffering exists. You just need to explain how sad it is; you don’t need to dwell on it etc. Like you say, engineering advances keep us safe every day in cars etc etc with care. Kindly I think you sound super precious.

Kindly, you've made an awful lot of assumptions @babyproblems and come across as thinking you're awwwwfffflllyyy perfect in your parenting.

I posted to continue a conversation from last night. I can see both sides of this, hence asking the question.

I think it could be a great topic if made age appropriate and the learning focus is away from the death. But the mass death is unavoidable and has to be part of the story. I know that in a class of 30, with children that age, some children will be fine knowing about that many deaths and some won't.

So my view is being shaped a little more by this thread.