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

[ludwig]

// I think it is not right to play games with four year olds minds over an "egg" bigger than they are. //

I can see both sides to this. On the one hand it's strange to lie to little kids. We know they haven't developed a b*s filter, so they're going to take everything as truth. On the other hand we lie to them about santa claus, the tooth fairy, the easter bunny and religion anyway. It's all well intentioned, as in this case.

Remember this comes from the Daily Mail, and will have been blown out of all proportion, if not completely fabricated. The truth could well be that there was 1 single parent who had a problem with it, and their child wasn't even that bothered, but that would've been a rubbish story which wouldn't have been critical of the teaching profession, so not DM material.

[kvalidir]

Speaking Naomi, as someone who comes from an extended family (including all the halfs and all the steps) of 20 children, none of whom would have freaked out about it, apparently my parents seem to have done okay as well with a very different modus operandi.

[Mamyalynne]

Oh blow it - just take them to Disney and frighten the heck out of them with an eight foot tall mouse !

[naomi24]

Ludwig, the Mail seems to have reported it reasonably accurately.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-28224911

[grasscarp]

And a local paper reported:
The egg was part of a project at Holy Trinity Primary School in Halstead designed to spark children’s imagination and get them thinking creatively.

A letter published on the school website said the “amazing discovery” had been “cordoned off”.

Head teacher Jon Smith wrote: “After I sent a photograph of our discovery (right) to the National Museum of Strange Objects in London, the Investigator in Chief, Dr Violet Strangeways, dispatched an Investigator to perform a site inspection and then authenticate the discovery.

“Dr Strangeways, from the National Museum of Strange Objects has asked me to ensure that our children remain vigilant and put all their energies into research and investigation in order to help the museum ascertain the origins of this amazing discovery.”

Mr Smith emphasised that, “the area and object are 100% safe and pose no threat whatsoever to the public.”

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"A cobblers of load what of" - rearrange these words into a well known phrase or sentence.

[Hypognosis]

Hooray. I get to read the story without feeding the Daily Mail's ad-click counter.

Thanks, Naomi.

[kvalidir]

//Mr Smith emphasised that, “the area and object are 100% safe and pose no threat whatsoever to the public.” //

Really a terrifyingly ambiguous statement from the headteacher- NOT.

[pixie373]

To a 4 year old- who knows?

[ummmm]

Mamy makes a great point. I took mine to disneyland and my 1 year old son was petrified of every character.

[inksplotter]

Probably in his mind all Disney characters are the same size as him.

[Sqad]

Ive been thinking.

A primary school..........end of term........the "silly season."

Eggs, aliens................not the brightest idea.

I can see no harm except justifying the word.......CREATIVE.

No big deal.....everyone will get over it.

[ummmm]

Probably. It had no lasting effect though.

[sherrardk]

I talked to my children about this at lunchtime and they all thought it was a good idea. When I asked did they think some kids might get upset or frightened they seemed completely bemused as to why they might given that aliens aren't real.

[Ellipsis]

> "We made it absolutely clear to everyone that the egg was of no danger to anyone"

But what about the thing that laid it????

[Hypognosis]

The thing that laid it is probably salivating at the thought of all the merchandising opportunities arising from this.

[Ellipsis]

The point is that if you create a story to feed an active imagination then you shouldn't be too surprised if the active imagination takes the story further and in different directions than you expected.

I don't know why some of the children were terrified. It would be interesting to know, but no reasons were given.

One possible reason is that eggs conceal what's inside. Therefore an active imagination could imagine all sorts of horrible things lurking there, despite the best assurances of the head teacher.

And above I suggested another possible reason - that eggs are laid by adults that tend to be very much larger than the egg. In this case, a reptile or a bird possibly 30 feet in length with sharp claws, beak or teeth, for example. And none of the reassurances given about the area or the egg applied to that creature.

[inksplotter]

I remember when I was eleven we listened to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. Under the new regime this sort of thing would be banned, no doubt?

[Svejk]

kids are coddled today.