Creative Teaching Or Irresponible Prank?

[kvalidir]

Something which I consider to be wonderful , creative teaching has taken place at Trinity School, however some children's parents appear to have taken umbridge about it saying their children are 'scared', 'terrified' and 'having nightmares'. Is this a case of the school not having thought things through or of poor parenting in the sense that the parents seem unwilling or unable to adequately explain to their kids that there really is nothing to worry about and happily jumping on the bandwagon of criticising the school?



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2685677/Teacher-apologises-parents-alien-egg-project-leaves-children-tears-scared-school.html

[kvalidir]

Indeed, you are somewhat known for it, as am I, and it's no bad thing actually :)

[naomi24]

Oh really? I wouldn't know. I don't mix in the same circles as you. Good word that .... 'circles'. ;o)

[ummmm]

Naomi...are you arguing for arguments sake?

Parents, imo, should kindly tell their children to get a grip, real life is much scarier...

[naomi24]

No, I'm not, Ummmm. If you think telling a four year old to 'get a grip' is good parenting, do it, but don't demonise others for treating their children with a little more understanding.

[Svejk]

would you like the Brothers Grimm to be 'expelled', Naomi? ;-)

[naomi24]

:o)

[kvalidir]

Serious question Naomi, how do you propose a 'distressed' child ever learns to cope with things if perfectly harmless, normal things, which they have already been told by their teacher has been checked and is SAFE, re removed or not done because they have a fit of screaming hysterics because they are scared? Do you think pandering to that fear or removing any possibility of fear in a small child is responsible, because I don't? They will grow up nervous wrecks.

[jim360]

It seems to me that taking the fear any children might have about this sort of thing seriously, and not trying to discourage it, will end up leading to an adult whose risk assessment is rather poor. I certainly wouldn't tell my children, in so many words at least, to "get a grip", but I would try to explain why they have nothing to fear and should just enjoy the experience of thinking about it.

I do think that perhaps the school should have provided more information to the parents beforehand, but it sounds like the majority of the children were fascinated so I'd say the project would have been a success with better communication.

[ummmm]

'Get a grip' is a figure of speech. You reassure them, cuddle them, tell them they have nothing be afraid of. But never ever stop them experiences things!!

[pixie373]

No, they won't, kvalidir. Fear is overcome by knowledge, desensitising and experience. None of which was given to these children. They need to be given confidence to deal with new situations, not told to "get a grip".

[Hypognosis]

I think children are more often less scared of the 'thing' and more distressed by the sense that they literally "don't know what to do" about the immediate situation. After time for reflection they may be bothered more by their inability to act correctly, in a (in this case, mock) crisis situation than by the nature of the crisis itself.

'Learned helplessness' is a potentially lifelong psychological problem, worthy of its own page on wikepedia.

For all those stable, secure adults out there, let's see you plonked in front of an audience without a script and see if you can empathise with these 4 year olds.

I can hardly even remember being that age. I wouldn't have had a clue what was going on.

[sherrardk]

Makes me wonder how these 'distressed' children cope with the horror if the tooth fairy flying about their bedrooms and Father Christmas breaking into their house.

[naomi24]

Speaking as a parent I seem to have done alright, kvalidir.

[dunnitall]

Having looked through this thread I just had to comment. I have to concur with a lot of what Naomi has said, common sense should have been part of this project. However, from my observations of society today, it seems many people lack it or refuse to apply it in certain situations. The teaching fraternity should be more than aware how very young children's minds work in that they sometimes have difficulty in distinguishing between what's real or what is not real, surely that's why there's lots of books for them to read to fire their imagination and sometimes "scare" a little or give other emotions. Hopefully books at this age are read with supervision and the parent/teacher will explain what is real and what is pretend.

All it would have taken in this instance is for the parents to be fully informed before this project took place, then they could have supervised their child's emotional outcome to suit their child if needed. Some children may not have required to know the facts, some might have and that IMO is how it should have been dealt with. Not all humans are the same (thank goodness) so each to be dealt with differently and especially where children are concerned. Common sense I think but sadly lacking quite often where it's needed most.

[ummmm]

Lol Sher....and do they cope reading books?

[dunnitall]

Kva - your post @ 10:43 my answer to that one would be you don't get them to learn to cope with stressful etc situations by throwing them in at the deep end!

[grasscarp]

Dunnitall has summed up the situation very well. I think it is not right to play games with four year olds minds over an "egg" bigger than they are. I have grandchildren of that age right now. They rely on adults to be helping them adjust to the world around them and a school should never pretend about reality in this way. (IMHO)

[belrec]

what's the betting the teachers already "guessed" which kids and parents would cause a fuss ;-)

I think this is amazing teaching but perhaps a note to parents before hand would have ameliorated the situation.

[grasscarp]

what does it teach Belrec? That you cant trust a teacher?

[belrec]

Ah grasscarp not that :-) but that there will always be a very small proportion prepared to spoil for the rest.