Teacher ’suspended over 9/11 creative writing task’

[survivorinohio]

Teacher ’suspended over 9/11 creative writing task’

Murray Wardrop

Telegraph
November 23, 2009

Kathy Young, 29, is said to have left children traumatised after also asking them to imagine that they had been killed in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Parents complained to Oxclose Village Primary School in Washington, Tyne and Wear, after their children reportedly came home in tears following the creative writing lesson.

Mrs Young, who has a nine-year-old daughter, devised the task as children observed the anniversary of the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks in which 2,995 people died, it is claimed.

“How can she set young children this kind of essay? Many of them have been left traumatised by her ridiculous lesson,” one parent told a Sunday newspaper.

Read entire article  

Thoughts?

[tericared]

 asking them to imagine that they had been killed in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

What a terrible thing to ask a young person to write about much less think about......Maybe this would be OK in college..

[bree79001]

Quoting tericared:

 asking them to imagine that they had been killed in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

What a terrible thing to ask a young person to write about much less think about......Maybe this would be OK in college..

yeah...maybe  even high-school but 7? Common!

[DThornton]

This would be more appropriate for older students such as high school and college

[UncondtnlLove]

Regardless, of the age (maybe I need to read the whole article) I cannot undestand the purpose of them imagining that they had been killed in those attacks. Maybe (in college) having them imagine if they had lost someone in these attacks (which still would have seemed morbid and cruel to me) would have been more understandable but if someone has died, there isn't much to imagine, is there? Oh wait, maybe she was wanting them to imagine the impact that their death would have had on their friends and family? IDK, this seems like a really strange assignment, especially for such young children. 

[survivorinohio]

I would think that there are a lot of seven year olds who have no idea what death is.  I dont think this is ok at all and I wonder what she was thinking, at seven we talked about the cherry tree, the liberty bell, "fun" history.  I think it was fourth grade or so before we really touched on war.  But were were in fact at war in Viet Nam when I was seven...

[sweetpeaholly]

Definitely not something to discuss with these children. I agree with the other posts, maybe high school or college, but these children were way too young. When 9/11 happened, my kids were 11, 7, & 5. I shielded them as much as possible from what was going on. I wouldn't let them watch the news but rather I told them what happened and discussed it with them. 

We went to an event a few years back where they had the metal circulating from the Twin Towers and you could sign it; they were going to use the beams to reconstruct the memorial with. That was probably the first time my children got an understanding of what truly happened and how devastating it was. Even that was extremely sad for them so I can only imagine if they were asked to write an essay about it at such a young age.

[nysa76]

I agree that high school would probably be a time to do this work.  Many kids today lack empathy and some tough questions like this might not be a bad idea.  The appropriateness of age though makes a world of difference. 

[resamerie]

I think this is atrocious. My DD is 7. She understands the concept of death at a 7 yo level so it's not like she doesn't know that people die. But, knowing her, I could see how an assignment like this would severely frighten her. Asking her to write about her own mortality? Asking her to write about her dad being killed? And a random death at that? Yes, I know it happened. I just don't believe that a child of that age should have to face questions about death. BTW, I'm wondering on how these children got graded on these papers? I'm sorry, this woman should have put a lot more thought behind her assignment. Just because she doesn't mind her 9 yo adhering to such a curriculum doesn't make it right. I think it's sick. I know it would give my DD nightmares for weeks.     

[hsteele]

We learned in psychology that most children are unable to fully grasp abstracts like death until after they hit the puberty stage of development. What a moron this teacher is. And cruel.

Quoting survivorinohio:

I would think that there are a lot of seven year olds who have no idea what death is.  I dont think this is ok at all and I wonder what she was thinking, at seven we talked about the cherry tree, the liberty bell, "fun" history.  I think it was fourth grade or so before we really touched on war.  But were were in fact at war in Viet Nam when I was seven...