Feedback needed please

MrMoe

My sister in-law is a 10th grade Honors student. She is 14 and currently enrolled in English II - a required course. She and her fellow students are studing the Holocaust in thier Honors English class.

The teacher has instructed them to do the following:

Watch 3 videos to date depicting Nazi executions, including the deaths of men, women and children by gas, firing squads, and one that particularly bothers me a small child being taken away from their parents, tossed back and forth in the air to die by being impaled on a pitch fork.

Read a book with graphic violence and death.

Write a composition based upon the students placing themselves in a box car during the Holocaust on their way to a concentration camp to be executed. They are required to write about how they feel.

My sister-in-law and her friends have requested to not watch the videos depicting such graphic violence because they are having nightmares. The teacher instructed them that they have to as it is required to take notes and pass a future exam.

I have phoned the Principal of the school, a local newspaper and a local TV News company. I feel no 14 - 15 year old child should have to be subjected to witnessing live executions, let alone to call it an English class. What on earth does this have to do with an English class? An since when are young kids supposed to watch live footage of even small children being executed by the Nazis?

By the way, the school has a Website - It's Lehigh Senior High School. The website is http://www.lee.k12.fl.us/schools/lsh/ and her teacher is a woman by the name of Ms. Cindy Jenkins, room number 3212. Please feel free to file a complaint.

I would like your feedback on the issue.

Utopian Reformist

Hi Moe:

There are numerous approaches each resulting in a variety of outcomes for your sister-in-law. Before you begin, make sure she is comfortable with the idea of going forward and resisting this insane requirement. If she is, here is one simple idea:

Notify the superintendent of the school district in writing and copy the local news media and the local chapter of the ACLU. I believe if there are still reasonable adults with careers in the balance in your school district, that should end the problem immediately.

waiting

Howdy MrMoe,

I've heard others here defend their talk & encouragement of taking drugs, etc., - even when others have said that there are teenagers who read here. Their defense? "They hear, read, and watch a lot worse than that at home & at school."

True statement - whether I agree or not.

14 year olds are old enough to watch the news - I would assume that they've seen live footage of the WTC bombing. Perhaps the footage of the Taliban executing a woman on their football field. Lord, how many live cop shows are on showing brutality & violence? Talk shows.

I don't know if I agree with the teacher or not, to be honest. But, also to be honest, for a 14 (who will be old enough for the military in 3 years) to try and *feel* what it's like to be the victim, to understand the horror of what millions of persons were subjected to - and their country men turned their heads away in willed ignorance - might not be such a bad thing.

"Scheindler's List" was graphic. "Private Ryan", "Enemy at the Gates" both major war time graphic. But they all did one thing in common - presented the soldiers/civilians as human beings - both sides, and the enormous grossness of war.

There are so many horror movies - some nothing more than a parody of horror movies. Most kids see them, either screaming or laughing. Perhaps the teacher is trying to bring forth the empathy in these teenagers? Honor students are expected to be able to grasp a little faster, deeper, than the average kid - at least that's the goal of some teachers. Maybe not such a bad thing?

waiting

LDH

Moe,

On this one I have to say I agree with Waiting. I did not prevent my daughter (11) from seeing Sept. 11 video.

I figured if some kids could live it, other kids could watch it and learn from it. Personal opinion. I remind her that MOST children her age in this world are either:

Malnourished
Child slaves
Diseased
missing limbs from land mines
playing with guns
well on their way to being dead.

She is one of the few who might be smart enough to do something about it.

If you still disagree, the only card you can play on this one is the religion card. No school district would force something 'against' someone's religion.

14 is smack in the middle of idealism. A reality check might not be such a bad thing.

Love,
Lisa

waiting

One more thought: My son is 26, 2nd year law student (high honors). His study group speculated on why there are so many graphic war movies within the last couple of years?

Saving Private Ryan
Pearl Habor
Thin Red Line
Enemy at the Gate

And, of course, Platoon.

To the generation after VietNam - the last generation to be involved in a major war movement - what it was really, graphically, like to be in a war. What it looked like, perceived smells, anger, sorrow, mutilations. What it was like for the prisoners and the enemy.

The feeling was - one major reason for these types of depictions of war, blood, & death, was so that this generation who has not been to war - may think twice before wanting a war, voting for a war, being in a war.

So many young kids go into the military, into war, and have absolutely no idea what it's like. Or what it's like to be on the losing side, because somebody's gonna lose. Surely, it's easier to learn in school, touched on in movies, than to actually have to experience it.

waiting

mike047

HI MM, Which English course is she taking? The regular or Honor?
There is something in the honor section about signing a contract.
This section(honor) is kinda printed all together and is hard to read.
I don't think that she should be required to view this against her will.

MrMoe

Honors Class. Many of the students are having nightmares and have been seen crying. The teacher instructed them that they have to watch the videos mentioned above, as it is required to take notes on them and use these notes to pass a future exam. Has this world become such a violent place that young students at the ages of 14 and some 15, who barely understand who they are in life, have to be subjected to such violence?

And a baby being impaled on a pitch fork? These kids can't even drive yet.

Study of the Holocaust may be an excellent educational point, but no child should be forced to experience or even come across live documentation of innocent people, including children, being executed. This is not the movies, this is real live death of innocent people. If this teacher, Ms. Cindy Jenkins, feels this is a topic that must be discussed in order to create empathy in the students, then she needs to approach it from an entirely different angle. There is enough going on in the world with the current tragic events than to subject a child to this.

ItsJustMe

In my experiences in highschool as a witness, there were several required class assignments that went against my moral ethics.

I requested an alternative assignment. I always assumed that this was something they were required to provide if students had ethical, religious, or moral reasons to not participate.

VeniceIT

Enemy at the Gate was a GREAT movie, and a true story, and one reason I really liked it was the main character was also in Tom Clancy's lastest book 'The Bear and the Dragon' as an old man.

I remember watching VERY graphic movies about the Nazi's. Several times no one in the class ate lunch ('cause it was right before). It was rather derpressing, but for some reason I'd always been intriged with studying it. I was upset at the time the teacher wouldn't let me play the 'purple triangle' tape. I did get the chance to witness to the class about the JW's though hahhhahhaa, too bad it was all lies, oh well they prob weren't paying attention anyway.

I don't remember haveing nightmeres from that though, but I DID in gradeschool with the firesafty and train videos, those were AWFUL!!!! I couldn't even light a match till I was in high school I was so freaked out. Mom had to write a note saying I could no longer watch those videos.

Each kid or person is diff as to what's gonna bother them. I think the teachers need to be aware of that and proceed accordingly. We're living in a diff world now esp since Sept 11 with heightend sensitivity, I think this should be reflected in schools and the treatment of children.

I say FIGHT IT!!! It's not right to horrify a kid like that, I mean there are other ways of teaching it!!!

Hope it all works out!

Ven

"Injustice will continue until those who are not affected by it are as outraged as those who are."

safe4kids

Hey (((((Moe)))),

How ya holding up sweetie?? You've been in my thoughts.

As for this issue, I agree with Ven. These kids don't need to be forced to watch something that is giving them nightmares. I agree that they need to be educated about the holocaust and the world we live in, but if it is causing them severe emotional distress, then it should be left up to the parents whether their children view such videos.

I know how disturbing it can be. Three years ago, in my college history class (I was a 32 year old woman with kids, for pete's sake!) we watched documentaries on the holocaust and I cried through every one of them. My professor very kindly offered to let me skip the viewing of the videos as they were so distressing for me. Why did I have such a reaction? BECAUSE THEY ARE INDEED REAL!! These teenagers KNOW the difference between movies they view and the reality of the videos they are watching. Some kids can handle it, others cannot. If this was my daughter (or son), the school board would have a fight on their hands for sure.

Dana

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...
Closing Time, Semisonic

Feedback needed please

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