I am beginning to get a rather bizarre view of teaching techniques in England. If you recall, we recently saw how teachers terrorized students with the fake murder of a colleague. Now, teachers including Headteacher Mike Richards at St. Mary’s RC told children that World War III had broken out and, using fireworks, had them cringing in a cellar as a learning experience.
The children were shown footage of the Blitz in World War II and were told that London was in the process of being bombed.
The teachers wanted students to know what it was like to live through a war — and they succeeded all too well according to parents.
Richards abandoned the dim idea in the afternoon after complaints that the children were terrified. Teachers also complained about the impact on the children — some of whom had nightmares.
Richards explained “[t]he bulk of the boys thought it was great but a few of the girls were upset and had a sleepless night. . . . The school apologises for any distress that was caused but we don’t come to school with the idea of upsetting our pupils.”
Well I guess that was a learning experience.
In the United States, it might have also introduced the headmaster to the scourge of litigation and the concept of negligent infliction of emotional distress and torts litigation.
Source: DailyMail
Jonathan Turley
Now you’re going to have a bunch of kids walking around with PTSD smart going there eh.
give the teachers a learning experience, put pink slips in their next paycheck
Blouise, I am indeed older than you by a decade. As for your wager, you will not get a taker in me. I think you are 100% right in your assessment.
Elaine M.,
To this day I remember how worried I was about my dog … after one of those drills I would take my dog everywhere with me because I knew that if the bombs came my dog would be curious about the lights and the noise and wouldn’t have the sense to run home. I’d have nightmares about it.
Funny you should mention the Mass thing. My best friend growing up was Catholic and she used to worry about me going to hell because I was Protestant. She’s still a very good friend and when we are together we laugh about all the prayers and bargains she’d make with God to get me into heaven. Hopefully she’s still working at it.
Otteray Scribe,
I’m 65 and have dealt with many children. I have found that often, not always of course, “separation anxiety” can be handled smoothly if one considers that the child is not always as concerned about his/her mother leaving him as he/she is with the thought “will my mom be alright without me”.
Many times reassuring the child that mommy is going to work, or going home, or going for a ride in the car works wonders. The child imagines mom in a familiar, safe place and stops crying.
I have no studies or position papers to back me up … just my experience.
I’m willing to bet a substantial sum that much of the trauma left over from this event will be traced to the horrors the children were imagining happening to their loved ones.
Blouise,
I most certainly did think about those children and how fearful and worried they must have felt. And I can’t even begin to imagine what went on in the minds of educators who thought this act of terrorizing children would be a good learning experience.
I still remember something that happened when I was about eight years old and attending parochial school. We were told that not attending Mass on Sundays was a mortal sin. I knew that people with mortal sins on their souls went to hell after they died. One evening at home, I had an hysterical crying fit because I thought my father was destined to burn in hell for all eternity after he passed away. You see, he didn’t go to church every week. I CAN imagine how frightened I would have been if my teacher showed me footage of the Blitz and let me believe that Boston or New York City or Washington, D. C., was being bombed.
Blouise:
That was one of my concerns as well. I must be a bit older than you. I remember air raid drills and blackouts during WW-II and they were scary. Later, like you, the constant drilling about the threat of a nuclear WW-III during the cold war was enough to give even a hardy kid ulcers.
I totally fail to understand anyone thinking this was a good idea and that the kids would “learn” something constructive. I just wonder how many of them will need therapy or medication in the future because of this idiocy.