Teacher told 6 year old that Van Gogh shot himself in the head? - inappropriate ?

[mom2daisypie]

Hi all,

I am looking for some other opinions please before I have a word with the school tomorrow morning.

Today my 6 year old daughter came home and told me that they're learning all about art, and today was Vincent Van Gogh. She went on to ask me "what does it look like when someone shoots themselves in the head with gun?" - I nearly spat my tea out! I asked her why she asked me that and she said that one of her teachers had been telling groups (including some reception aged children) that Van Gogh shot himself in the head with a gun because people didn't like his art.

Now I'm not usually an over-reactive mother but something doesn't sit very comfortably with me here. At bed time my daughter stood on her bed and pretended to hold a gun (her fingers) under her chin and said "no-one likes my art....BANG!" and dropped on the bed as if she'd shot herself. I find this very very inappropriate for her age group and I fail to see what this piece of macabre information contributes to her education and understanding of art???

What would you do?

Probably irrelevant but Van Gogh shot himself in the stomach. So inappropriate and inaccurate.

But he didn't...

Nothing

well yes - either way - I don't feel comfortable with my 6 year old daughter being given such macabre information which is now clearly playing on her mind.

In Year 1 (and also reception were included) I don't see how such detail brings anything to their art education? My daughter has since asked me what it looks like when someone kills themselves for gods sake.

I don’t think that’s at all appropriate. I’m not sure what I’d do though.

Not an issue for year 6 age imo.

I think I will take my daughter in as normal tomorrow and then go to the Headteacher for a quiet word. It wasn't my daughters class teacher I should say, but another member of teaching staff.

Properlavs - my daughter is in year 1 (6 years old) not year 6

Sorry misread your op, thought is said year 6 not g years! No not really appropriate. Don't know what I'd do though. Go in and have a word?

No you're right, I wouldn't be comfortable with it either. It's the sort of thing that would annoy me at first and then I'd probably forget about it.

I was being a bit facetious upthread, but actually it's not great that the teacher was inaccurate.

ProperLavs she is 6 not in year 6. Not only is it not appropriate it is inaccurate.

What makes it worse is that she tells her 4 year old sister everything she learns at school...usually thats fine, but this piece of information has made my youngest scared!

Is it any worse though than half the random stuff they talk about on Horrible Histories (e.g. trepanning, or South Americans digging up dead ancestors?)

Meh it’s not to bad, the world is a violent place

Pretty sure he didn’t shoot himself in the face though

Sort of off topic here, but there’s evidence that Van Gogh didn’t kill himself and was in fact murdered

Thing is horrible histories is not responsible for whom watches the show. They have an audience of a very wide age range- I watch it.

However, a teacher knows exactly who he/she is talking to. In this instance she didn't need to mention that he killed himself at all. It could have been said that he was not a happy man and this is shown in his art and ask children if they can see the evidence for any of this.

That's more than enough at that age.

I think it was perhaps too much information but not something I would complain about. My child coming home in year r describing I’m detail death by crucifixion, I was mad about that (not a religious school other than how they all are required to do daily act of worship etc etc so not expected!)

I think my ds learned about Van Gogh in yr1 but never mentioned about his death.

It's a difficult subject, tbh. If you are watching news with children, you hear all about horrible things these days. We were definitely talking about war when ds was 6.

Is it confusion by your DD (or her teacher) about Van Gogh cutting his ear off?

Which again from a Yr6 child is like to result in a lot of v factual questioning which can sound to an adult v gross or insensitive but to them is just getting all the facts.

Children of this age are finding out about death and it does lead to a lot of questions which to adult ears are positively gruesome. However they are entirely normal and children need to have factual calm answers to this as part of their growing up - better about a distant figure like Van Gogh than something on the news or even worse someone close to home.

Yeah that's just something that a 6 year old, and reception children, don't need to know about. I'm pretty sure when I learned about Van Gough in year 9 secondary school the teacher didn't feel the need to bring that up, so why a primary school teacher would tell that detail to children is beyond me!

Children don't have to watch horrible histories Although mine loved it from a young age so although many are used to this level of gore it is not necessarily appropriate in school. I think mine learnt about him chopping his ear off but not his death in primary school.

My DC would have been OK with that information (although it would bother me that it was inaccurate) at that age but many of his friends would have been upset so I don't really feel it's appropriate in general for Y1.

I have a question. Kids hear the story of Jesus from a very early age and nobody has objections?
The story is a young man is nailed alive to what was a common torture device at that time, the cross, and after days of suffering with several piercing things in his body and head, was killed by a spear

I might have the details wrong, but my understanding is that this story is told to young children and those attending churches will see statues, sculptures , paintings or just crosses with Jesus on it, sometimes with blood on his chest and a face revealing immense suffering. That's macabre in my book.

And everybody is fine with that. A teacher during an art lesson, gives details of the painter and shock!.

If a child ask " how did he die"? Should the teacher lie? Sometimes kids in a classroom take you by surprise by asking questions.
Take Oscar Wilde. Why was he sentenced to prison? Nice question. Good luck answering that without parents storming the principal's office.

I would have no problem at all with a teacher telling 6yo’s that an artist killed themselves. It’s not macabre, it’s life and not inappropriate information for a 6yo.

I would however have a huge problem with a teacher telling anyone that Van Gough shot himself in the head given he sustained a gunshot to the abdomen and no one knows if it was self-inflicted or at the hand of another and in what circumstances. That’s just plain odd.

Not sure what’s worse here, the fact that the teacher has no clue about what she’s teaching and is making stuff up or that she’s giving inappropriately gory facts to 6 year olds. A word with the headteacher is definitely needed.

However, it’s not the teacher’s fault that your 6 year old tells your 4 year old everything she learns at school. The teacher definitely needs to think about how suitable her lesson content is for a year one class but whether or not it’s appropriate for a younger sibling is not her problem and it’s down to you to manage that at home.