World War 1 - foundation year

[Steel Icarus]

Bit flabbergasted, actually, that my four-year-old daughter and her class are doing a topic on the First World War. She came home on Tuesday and announced that she now knows what to do if the "alarm" goes off - get under a table, in a cupboard or get in the shelter.

They've a tent set up in the classroom and have been practising getting into it quickly. She also knows lots of soliders went to fight the enemy with guns and lots of men died "fighting for our country".

Now obviously kids get taught history, and you can't skip over the fact the "great" war is important to teach - but these kids are FOUR. How widespread is this? Any other schools doing this with their little ones? I can't imagine there won't be loads of kids going home scared about bombs.

 

[DotCommunist]

break out the wilfred owen to balance it out.

I know the generation before me feared the Bomb (the big one with its gamma rays). post cold war though, despite loads more countries having it, not the same Fear

 

[Steel Icarus]

My point, if I didn't get it across properly, is I'm questioning why teach four year olds about this at all?

 

[Enviro]

My point, if I didn't get it across properly, is I'm questioning why teach four year olds about this at all?

Need to get it into their little heads that one day they're going to have to be sent to their deaths by someone like big Dave and that it's ok because it's for "our" (their) country.

 

[Pickman's model]

one state, one people, one leader

 

[RedDragon]

It's this year's nationalistic party theme (the Queen has been exhausted of late), although why we're commemorating the start rather than the end is a tad perplexing.

 

[Pickman's model]

It's this year's nationalistic party theme (the Queen has been exhausted of late), although why we're commemorating the start rather than the end is a tad perplexing.

 

[frogwoman]

to be fair i think we started learning about world war 2 at about 6 or 7

 

[toggle]

The kids that age don't live in a vacuum, and this is going to be discussed a lot over the next few years and at least they will have some clue what's going on. there's time later to do a more nuanced approach, but from the sounds of it, they could be doing this a lot worse.

 

[equationgirl]

Bit flabbergasted, actually, that my four-year-old daughter and her class are doing a topic on the First World War. She came home on Tuesday and announced that she now knows what to do if the "alarm" goes off - get under a table, in a cupboard or get in the shelter.

They've a tent set up in the classroom and have been practising getting into it quickly. She also knows lots of soliders went to fight the enemy with guns and lots of men died "fighting for our country".

Now obviously kids get taught history, and you can't skip over the fact the "great" war is important to teach - but these kids are FOUR. How widespread is this? Any other schools doing this with their little ones? I can't imagine there won't be loads of kids going home scared about bombs.

Did they have air raid alarms in WWI though? Surely that and getting into shelters etc are a WWII thing

 

[souljacker]

Did they have air raid alarms in WWI though? Surely that and getting into shelters etc are a WWII thing

My thoughts exactly. There were a few Zeppelin flights that made it to the east coast but there was no real civilian threat from the air. If anything, the teacher should be berated for her lack of history knowledge.

 

[toggle]

there were bombing raids, from planes and the zepplins, i'd suspect they threw in the whole war the sort of tonnage they could deliver in a week during '41. more effective in scaring the crap out of people than taking out targets, but ww2 wasn't always an improvement in accuracy. big cities would have had sirens of some sort activated by spotters, plus air defences, of variable use. shelters were more the safest place available than planned and purpose built

 

[equationgirl]

My thoughts exactly. There were a few Zeppelin flights that made it to the east coast but there was no real civilian threat from the air. If anything, the teacher should be berated for her lack of history knowledge.

I knew Edinburgh and Leith got a fair bit of Zeppelin bombs dropped on them, and there were a number of casualties on the civilian side, but that was thought to be a one off because the pilot was supposed to be dropping bombs somewhere else with a high manufacturing density.

There was no sustained bombing campaign like there was in WWII, that's for sure.

 

[white rabbit]

I don't think there's a problem with telling them about war and death. I don't know what the culture of childhood is nowadays, but there were some fairly explicit stories told to us as fairy tales. I'd be surprised if they would be exposed to conditions in the trenches, or the effect of gas and bombs. My only surprise is that to my adult mind, I find it hard to comprehend. I imagine a small child would be utter baffled by it.

 

[Bakunin]

The kids that age don't live in a vacuum, and this is going to be discussed a lot over the next few years and at least they will have some clue what's going on. there's time later to do a more nuanced approach, but from the sounds of it, they could be doing this a lot worse.

True. I spent much of my childhood being taught the more, ahem, practical aspects of soldiering...

 

[toblerone3]

First bomb to land on London fell in the gardens of the former Nevill Arms in Nevill Road Stoke Newington. My girlfriend used to live in the house. Remember seeing this photo of the bomb in the house.

 

[toggle]

True. I spent much of my childhood being taught the more, ahem, practical aspects of soldiering...

i don't think anyone wants their kids to grow up like you though

 

[Bakunin]

i don't think anyone wants their kids to grow up like you though

 

[toggle]

I knew Edinburgh and Leith got a fair bit of Zeppelin bombs dropped on them, and there were a number of casualties on the civilian side, but that was thought to be a one off because the pilot was supposed to be dropping bombs somewhere else with a high manufacturing density.

There was no sustained bombing campaign like there was in WWII, that's for sure.

most weren't targetting civilians in ww2. they just hit a lot of them because the accuracy was still so low. the raids on plymouth was aimed at the docks, 3 bombs hit that, and the only one that went off was in under however many feet of water and harbour mud - cue minimal damage. the city however, was near flattened. iirc they both got more casual about collateral damage as the war progressed because they both believed the other was targetting deliberately - they didn't believe their accuracy was that low until later in the war.

 

[fishfinger]

Did they have air raid alarms in WWI though? Surely that and getting into shelters etc are a WWII thing

There were air raid sirens in WW1. Initially, there were police carrying notices:



These were later superseded by "sound rockets" launched from fire stations, and also sirens . In London, 300,000 people regularly used tube stations as shelters.

Some details here and here.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Four year olds are a pain in the arse. Teaching them to all go and stay in the cupboard on a signal is quite a cunning move on the teacher's part.

 

[Quartz]

My grandmother was a doctor in WW1 and ran a hospital - first in Leith then in France. She had a sketchbook of sketches drawn by some of her patients which I've scanned.

http://s143.photobucket.com/user/quartz-quill/library/WW1

 

[equationgirl]

My parents were given two watercolour and pen drawings as a wedding present by an art curator many years ago. Turn out they are war artist paitings from 1916 - can't remember exactly where they were done but I'll check next time I'm at home.