Politicising our children.

even if they were not quite sure what it meant
This comment really worries me. If pupils are not old enough to understand what is meant, is there any point of exposing them to it unnecessarily? It is surely advisable to teach younger children differently without the need for contested political views.

This is neither required nor helpful in primary school in my opinion.

I agree

They certainly learn more and much earlier than in the past.
It may be a good thing but sometimes I think they learn far more than might be necessary.

9 year olds could certainly know about rape (even if they were not quite sure what it meant) and the dismembering of babies.
This is neither required nor helpful in primary school in my opinion.
However, at secondary school, Year 7 onwards, of course education covers a wider range of key topics including consent, sexual exploitation, online abuse, grooming, coercion, harassment, rape, domestic abuse, forced marriage, honour-based violence FGM etc.

Chardy

Photos of dead children and bodies being pulled out of rubble are bound to generate questions from schoolchildren.

Only if the parents are irresponsible enough to let them watch such things. Or they feel like brainwashing their children to their point of view. No responsible parent would allow a nine year old to suffer nightmares and possible psychological damage.

Photos of dead children and bodies being pulled out of rubble are bound to generate questions from schoolchildren.

Glorianny 😁

Younger DGD was very anxious that we might be bombed by Russia when the war with Ukraine began. There had obviously been talk in the playground and they had Ukrainian refugee children in their school.

I used to read the newspapers when I was quite young, one news item I do remember was reading reports and seeing pictures of the North Sea Flood. I must have been about 7 but was very aware and worried we might get flooded.

I think we have to talk to young children, make them aware, but politicising them and encouraging them to take sides in conflicts and even protest when we may not know the minutiae ourselves is very wrong.

Deedaa

My 11 year old grandson has been watching Newsround since he was about 8 and has very firm ideas about what is going on in the world. When I was 10 we were having elections at school because there was a general election going on. Most of us wanted to be anarchists so I don't know how that worked out in later life!

I remember wanting to donate my birthday money to the World Wildlife Trust and my mother getting very cross. Apparently I wasn't allowed to give away money that had been given to me, I was supposed to spend it.

For some reason Year 6 children seem to go for very extreme views. Mine when we discussed smoking wanted to close all the cigarette factories, thought the government taxing cigarettes was disgusting and wanted them punished in some way, and wanted smoking made illegal.
Of course a couple of years later they were behind the bike sheds smoking away!!
I suppose they grew out of anarchy as well.

GSM I was reading the papers from the age of about 6. I would have known about the crimes Hamas was accused of when I was 9 - and understood.
.
When I was 9 we went to live in Hong Kong, then Singapore. At that time Mao Tse Tong had just taken over in China and every day brought horror stories of the torture and killing happening in China. Each day the train from Beijing would bring to Hong Kong, European and other nationalities, mainly missionaries who had been starved and tortured and their photos would be in the papers.

In Singapore the papers were serialising stories of the horrors of the Japanese Prisoner of War camps, again I read them all.

My parents were horrified when, as an adult, I told them. They thought they had kept the papers out of their children's way, but if a child wants to know or read something, at least in my case, itiss very hard to stop them.

9 year olds could certainly know about rape (even if they were not quite sure what it meant) and the dismembering of babies.

My 11 year old grandson has been watching Newsround since he was about 8 and has very firm ideas about what is going on in the world. When I was 10 we were having elections at school because there was a general election going on. Most of us wanted to be anarchists so I don't know how that worked out in later life!

I remember wanting to donate my birthday money to the World Wildlife Trust and my mother getting very cross. Apparently I wasn't allowed to give away money that had been given to me, I was supposed to spend it.

Awful.

Bit like the schools in Palestine teaching young children to hate Jews

I wonder why people think that children are only aware of the pleasant things that happen around them and don't notice the bad things?
Children do know and can ask difficult questions.
So you need to be aware and to be able to deal with them.
For the child who wanted to strike I would offer her sympathy, show respect for her feelings and congratulate her on her attempt to try to influence things. I would then suggest that she should think carefully about what benefits her going on strike would bring to the conflict and ask if there wasn't some other action she could take. I'd steer her round to writing to the PM, raising money for a charity supporting Gaza and possibly asking the headteacher to say a prayer in assembly. Hopefully she'd use one of them.

I don't know if that answers all those things Mollygo
I have never and would never have brought my personal beliefs into the classroom. Although at assembly after the Iraq protest march the children did sing "Last Night I had the strangest Dream" but that was the deputy head's decision.

I’m interested in what Glorianny would do in a school.
What are the rules where you work with regard to this subject Glorianny?
Do you adhere to the rules or invent your own?
If there are no rules how do you govern your own responses?
How would you explain your actions if questioned by the Head and governors?
How would you deal with parents who took exception to what you say?
What would you tell children who ask you a politically biased question (biased because they would more than likely present a question reflecting only their own viewpoint. Do you endorse their views if they match your own? What if they are in opposition to your views as posted on GN?

Thanks for the heads up Not.

Just checked, it must have been Ethiopia. 🇪🇹

It was a famine and woukd have been mid 80 s, will check.

I think the Biafra famine was late 60s to 1970, silverlining - I might be wrong..

Should any 9 year old be told about women being raped and babies being killed? I sincerely hope not.

Got called away, but wanted to say I was so very proud of her, as I still am.

Glorianny How would you judge it if after going into it thoroughly a 9 year old decided that Hamas were evil terrorists who raped women and killed babies and all the right was on Israel's side?

My dd age 8 at the time saw the news on tv about the Biafran famine in the 80 s. She wanted to help so decided to raise money by making lavender bags and selling them to friends and neighbours. She raised over £60 no mean feat for a little girl all those years ago. She also played, enjoyed her music, dancing, gym ballet swimming and her friends and did well at school.

👏👏👏 Joseann.

Glorianny, nobody can claim to be ‘informed’ unless they understand the points of view of all parties to a disagreement. You surely can’t expect that of 9 year olds. Being informed inevitably leads to picking sides, influenced by whatever those with influence (in this case parents) tell you - is that really what you want to see in children of this age?

I don't think children indoctrinate anybody I do think they discuss all sorts of things.
I wonder though if a year 6 child was to ask you a question about what was happening in Israel and Jewish people there would you just refuse to answer?

I think Sago's GD sounds very typical of a Year 4 child. I have been in a playground in the past few years and have never seen any KS2 children indoctrinating others or promoting political causes. (I think the latest conversations were about a series of cat books (?), and football matches).
Incidentally, and as an aside, because I visited Anne Frank's house last week, I have been invited as a one off to speak about the Dutch occupation and resistance to Year 6 children next week. Apart from a brief mention about yellow stars and swastika flags, I see no need to take more than a cursory glance at these issues. Instead we will be concentrating on the goodness seen in people who risked their lives at that time, which is in line with the age appropriate National Curriculum. No concealment of facts, just engaging 10 Year olds befittingly.

Sago

Dinahmo

Children are very knowledgeable these days. Surely it is better that they are aware of world events rather be worried about stuff on social media, such as not looking like Taylor Swift etc - or much worse - coming across pornography. the latter are reasons for anorexia or anxiety, rather than world events.

These are 9 year olds, our 9 year old GD , doesn’t go on social media or watch the news, she is far too busy playing games, drawing, crafting, watching TV and reading age appropriate books.

I'd be very surprised if your GD was as uninformed as you seem to suppose. Children can do all those things and still be aware of what is going on in the world.
The idea that they can't possibly be doing such things, or knowing about them, puts them in just as much danger as leaving them to just access social media, the news and the internet, without supervision.
Children will grow up with these things. A child who sees something on the news, is shown something on a friend's phone, or sees their parents on their phones needs to be able to discuss it. Saying they don't know puts them in the position of having to conceal what they do know

The Mother backing the child advocating striking in school over Palestine is madness. She is 9, she has opinions probably from her Mother and what she has seen on the news.
However think of the problems this could cause, are there Jewish children and parents at the school, do these childrenhave relatives over in Israel in the military, worst of all are there parents who could be racist and see things from a different perspective.
I too believe it is admirable to have a child with strong views, but she us 9 and should be listened to but encouraged also to do age appropriate things and not be so intense.
I also feel strongly for the people in Palestine, it is horrific, but at 9 can she really have views of her own or are they those of the parents. It's not the teachers job to teach these children about war in Palestine, they have to be neutral at all times.