Showing a 15 film to 11 year olds in school

[chocolateflapjack]

Now, do please tell me if you think IABU

As part of a history lesson, year 7s (many barely 11) were shown an extract from a cerificate 15 film. (The Life of Brian). This extract was inocuous.

For homework they are ancouraged to access this extract for themselves on youtube.

The response from the head of history is this:
We have shown the clip in class for a number of years and it is always received well by students; they enjoy the comedy and it is a good introduction to the topic, and for this reason we will continue to use it next year.

My concerns are

1. A child is being introduced to something potentially unsuitable, which they wouldn't have come across otherwise, and it would be easy to view other (less suitable) clips from this film on youtube.
2. A 15 film classification decision is reached by trained film classifiers, so it's not really the teacher's job to decide whether this is OK or not.
3. I have the right to expect that the classroom at least will be a safe place, and that my child will not be exposed to unsuitable material BY THE TEACHER.
4. The fact that a film clip is "received well" doesn't justify it.

Does anyone know what the law says about this and has anyone any suggestions for taking this further? I am not quite angry enough for the Daily Mail. Yet.

I'd be surprised it was possible given yer average school firewall cuts off youtube.

The hours I spend on keepvid, downloading clips to (no doubt illegally) embed into flipcharts for my interactive whiteboard...

The school will probably have ripped the relevant clip from a dvd & put it on their own server. This is what we do, & yep, it's probably illegal in the same way that 'home taping' is illegal.

agree highly unlikely that mentioning that clip is available on youtube is a breach of copyright.

The Italian Job has a G rating. It's fine to show to kids.

That clip is quite funny and makes a good point. It's not as if they drew the blinds and watched Terminator.

I think yabu and a bit precious tbh.

It's a tiny clip, and if they have access to you tube, etc. they've probably already seen worse!

dd has been watching 15 films for a while now. Only films I've already seen then I use imDb for the parent guide in case there is anything I've forgotten and then make a decision on whether she can watch a particular film.

Life of Brian -

Sex & Nudity
EditHistory
A nude man wakes up next to a nude woman in bed (they are covered by sheets); he climbs out of bed, and he appears completely nude as he opens a window to a large crowd who mistakes him for the messiah. Later, the woman is shown completely nude (her pubic region is clearly visible, while her hair covers her breasts).

In another scene, a man appears to be nude (whose genitals are obscured by his long hair).

Some discreet mild sexual references throughout.

Violence & Gore
EditHistory
Contains some mild comedic violence which has some blood and gore, body parts, and may upset or disturb younger viewers. Other scenes include a stoning sequence, a mass crucifixion, a lynch mob and a group suicide.

Profanity
EditHistory
6 uses of "fuck".

2 uses of "shit".

1 use and one implied use of "wanker".

2 uses of "bitch".

Many uses of "bastard", "piss" and other mild terms.

A Jew uses the term "kike" towards himself.

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking
EditHistory
None.

Frightening/Intense Scenes
EditHistory
None.

Any impact from violent or suspenseful scenes is mitigated by the humourous tone of the film.

Sounds pretty tame to me!

I think the life of brian is pretty harmless tbh. I will suspend my outrage for later on in the term when they show them "the human centipede" in order to teach them about biology. Then I will clutch my pearls :)

Advising people to look at an illegal copy is wrong. A school can show a bit of a DVD or all of it. YouTube is different. The school should have ponied up for the DVD.

Can I complain to my dd's junior school because they made her read the witches scene in Macbeth when the porter scene in the same play contains unsuitable sexual references and bad language? Surely they should have realised that introducing her to any part of Shakespeare might want make her want to read the rest?

at cory - I'm not entirely convinced that reading anything of Shakespeare would want to make them read more. Though Leonardo di Caprio has improved dd's interest in Romeo and Juliet a bit.

My children have known LfoB practically by heart for ages. One of the most educational films ever, in my opinion. History, RE, Latin- it has a bit of everything!

They were only shown an appropriate clip, there's no problem. You can block YouTube at home i f you want to.

I guess your kids are older than Y7 then seeker??

Sorry, I know mine hear the words at school, but films using "fuck" , "bastard" and "kike" do not float my boat as a parent of 10 and 11 year old girls..... but then, I didn't let them watch Avatar 'til this year because of the gratuitous "bullshit" and "limp-dick" comments.. yep - I'm a prude I guess, but they do not need to hear those words in this house...

Life of Brian wouldn't bother me personally, but.....

DH has just written to DD3s High school, she is 11 and in S1, refusing permission for her to watch Hotel Rwanda when they teach genocide in Modern Studies, and Armistad (?sp) when they do slavery in History. We have spoken to her guidance teacher and her Head of Year and they didn't think we were being unreasonable either. This came about because in Geography she was shown an educational film with a 12 rating, a fictionalised story about what might happen when the Yellowstone caldera erupted potentially destroying all human life on earth, and we got over 2 weeks of not sleeping properly, nightmares, not eating enough and high levels of anxiety before it all got sorted out.

I totally get the "let's make it exciting for everyone" view of education and it is hard for teachers, but there are unintended consequences and this was one of them. DD was not the only child having a wobbly about this, but was probably the worst affected. As her geography teacher agreed, how to deal with a panic attack was not the desired learning outcome from this piece of work. DD herself has said that she would probably have been OK if she had read about it in a textbook, but she can't get the pictures out of her head. As an adult, I wouldn't watch Hotel Rwanda either, but I have choice, if it is part of the curriculum DD wouldn't have that choice. My difficulty with this sort of thing is that we are supposed to be teaching kids how to evaluate evidence etc, not taking fictionalised versions as true records of events, but that is a whole other argument.

I think you are being a bit precious. The clip is age appropriate. I showed my 8 yr old a clip from MP & Holy Grail (the French taunting scene) because he couldn't spell "night" / "knight" and hearing it pronounced in an outrageous phonetic way fixed the spelling in his mind in a way all the revision and practice hadn't done. MP&HG is a 15 too.

Lets face it Eric Idle sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life at the Paralympics closing ceremony.

I also think you're a bit precious. The DC weren't shown the whole film; they were only shown a clip that the teacher seemed to want to use to embed the message of the lesson. I think the clip was brilliant.

It seems that teachers can't win. If they only use written worksheets, the lesson is boring, but if they try and make it interesting there's always some parent or other moaning. DC grow up very, very quickly at secondary school. You will be surprised. My friend (actually works in a secondary school) thinks that her DS is very proper and doesn't swear/muck about. Little does she know! He is in my DD's classes. He is a lovely boy, but nowhere near as innocent as my friend thinks.