Landships II

I hope that I am mistaken and this is just a bundle of rags

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7700258@N05/3065668669/in/set-72157601074582281/

Thank you (and merci), citizens.

I take your point, Gwyn, but the audience are students aged 17/18 and, whilst I hope they'll be as fascinated by the vehicles as we all obviously are, I think it's appropriate to show how bloody ghastly and dangerous it was. There are plenty of accounts of the heat, noise, fumes, claustrophobia, splash and shale, etc. Pics of wrecked Tanks tell part of the story, but I want to convey what it was like for the actual human beings inside if it all went wrong. I think there's a tendency, especially with kids, to think that everyone just got out of the Tank and walked away. The school involved has no objections.

I find it extraordinary that so much film shows the crews cheerily going about their business when they obviously knew what could happen to them in the near future.

Anyway, there's a pic in David Fletcher's Tanks 1915-19 of British dead outside the escape hatch of a female Tank. Not great quality, but I can try to tweak it. Anything else greatly appreciated.

I think yours is a fair point. I am more and more astonished at just how young these soldiers were and to demonstrate to these young people that these crews were their age in many cases can't do harm. Anyway, they probably all watch CSI....

The second pic Ironsides has posted is Ghurka. You'll find a photo of a dead crewman outside the Mark IV Female "Blarney Castle" at Fontaine Notre Dame on the Bundesarchiv website. There's another thread on this forum that gives the web address. The photo shows a smiling German officer standing alongside with a camera.

Gwyn

-- Edited by Gwyn Evans on Tuesday 14th of April 2009 08:01:09 PM

We are in most interesting territory here, and I could go on at length. A lady of my acquaintance is also a history teacher, and we have had many discussions about the idea of "accessibilty" when it comes to teaching the subject.

During a visit to the Tower of London we heard a tour guide say wearily to an excited party of schoolchildren, "Now we're going to where they used to cut people's heads off," and then, half to himself, "so you'll like that." Another teacher friend ponted out that if you give children a subject to paint such as 'Road Accidents' or 'War', the younger the kids the more blood and gore they try to get into the painting. There often isn't enough red paint to go round. I'm certain this demonstrates something, but I'm not sure what.

What I do know is that a few years ago I went to the Imperial War Museum with a pal of mine and his son, who was probably 12 or 13. The lad was extremely excited by the admittedly impressive Jagdtiger that is one of the first exhibits one comes across. It has ominous holes in the side where it was penetrated by armour-piercing shells, with obviously appalling consequences for the crew. My pal was not happy. He said, "I don't like this. This is making him think war is fun, which it isn't."

Equally disappointing is the A/V presentation that is shown at regular intervals in the IWM North, a couple of miles from me. The blessed Kate Adie does the narration, and the first sentence is, "All wars are caused by fear." The statement is, obviously, utter nonsense, but it goes out every couple of hours.

At the other extreme, I find the Horrible Histories series goes too far in the opposite direction. The edition on The Great War plays it for laughs and, in my view, trivialises the horror. It undoubtedly gets delighted squeals of disgust from younger kids, but I don't think that's particularly helpful.

So that's why I want to include a brief illustration of how horrifically a Tank crew could end up dying. The help from other members has been most useful, and I should like to thank everyone who has chipped in.

Incidentally, it is my experience that deriving amusement from sex, death, and toilets is something that never goes away.

James H wrote:

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I find the Horrible Histories series goes too far in the opposite direction. The edition on The Great War plays it for laughs and, in my view, trivialises the horror. It undoubtedly gets delighted squeals of disgust from younger kids, but I don't think that's particularly helpful.

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I've not seen the Horrible Histories WW1 book, we've got the one on the Romans on audiobook and  I can't listen to it because, well, it's just so, err, wrong.  In it's quest for accessiblity it manages to miss a whole load of history out - the bit about the Varian disaster in the Teutoburg forest is particularly dire IMHO.

The point about accessiblity is, and I'm sure your history teacher friend will agree with this, that you have to find a way to engage the students with something interesting before you then try to get some history into them. Very few kids will spontaneously derive enthusiasm from the social causes of the peasants' revolt or something equally tedious...

I was at sanctuary wood last year at the same time as a school party from Scotland - he'd got them all in the trench while he stood in no man's land and he was getting them to imagine being in their when it was wet and cold and muddy, with rats and with the smell of the decaying bodies in no man's land. But, and this is the point, he had them completely - he was getting them to engage with what the trenches were about in just the right way and they were learning something they were never going to forget (or at least till the end of the week which is pretty much all you can ask for). He was totally in the zone...

CJ wrote:

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'No child left behind' has become a philosophy of schooling, meaning every class moves only as fast as the slowest student.

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The key concept here is 'differentiation' in which you deliver the lesson in such a way that the core concepts are available to all the students regardless of ability but done in such a way that all students are equally challenged. So with a mixed ability class you might need to create two or three different worksheets to allow for the difference in abilities. You also need to liaise with your teaching assistants who may need to create a different worksheet for any students with special needs. My son's primary school teacher does spelling homework by picking an idea (like homophones, or words with a particular letter combination) and then creating three lists of varying degrees of difficulty and the student picks which one they choose to learn and on which they'll be tested - with some 'advice' on which one she thinks they might pick.

UK teachers are also expected to understand the difference in learning styles students have and to mix and match work from all the different types across the topic. So you have to make sure you're engaging visual learners as much as kinasthetic learners and so forth...

So you're dead right, you first have to engage their interest and then you have to deliver the lesson in such a way that you have equality of challenge in which every student can achieve to the same degree, even though they won't attain the same level. What was going to be interesting was how this chap at sanctuary wood was going to build on 'the experience' once he got them back into the classrooom.

 

It's ok, if you're an 'external speaker' you can just get up and do it!

I knew there was a reason I never started.

Thanks, Gwyn. Exactly what I'm after.

Along similar lines, I came across this pic of a burning Tank that I'd not seen before. Out of interest, anyone recognise it?

This is the only clear picture I have, I hope it is suitable
Paul