Heritage Album

Others who do genealogy. Do you think it is wise for teachers to have children trace their family trees?

I had a friend whose father would never trace his as his teacher gave it to a class he was in. One boy was very hurt when he found his grandfather had been hung. Don't you think that schoolkids are a little too immature to deal with family secrets in a school classroom? Now I am not questioning whether schoolkids should be taught to research their history but a classroom can be humiliating to kids if there is embarrassing information on the family. Adults can deal with it better It is possible his parents had nothing to do with telling him his grandfather was hung. In a small town, children might have recognized the name of his grandfather and had heard the story and let it out of the bag.

Public Comments

1. I think it's a good idea because so many times I have come across questions I would have loved to ask, aunt's, uncles etc that have now passed, before I became interested in family history. To really succeed you need to stary early and what is more interesting about history than you own?
2. I think such an assignment is an excellent idea. Parents can filter information they believe their children are not ready for. It's unlikely that too many children in the class will have grandparents who were executed.
3. I remember being about 8 or 9. The question was to find out who each of us were, where our families came from. I doubt if there had been a hanging my family would have told me that at my age. My one grandmother told me our oral history back to colonial times ... which I forgot about for over 50 years, once the assignment was done. But the memory stayed back there in the cobwebs of time for when I needed it AND my grandmother's facts were 100% correct, as I've proven - to my great amazement. So to answer your question, my answer is yes. We benefit from knowing who we are, a sense of our place in our world. To respond to the unfortunate hanging incident, what in the world was wrong with that child's PARENTS to have given that information to a young unprepared child? That's sick and ignorant!
4. Genealogy projects in school require absolutely no revelation of 'skeletons'. My own first tree was done in school and no one ever told me that my paternal grandfather had been arrested several times for bootlegging, nor that he forced his first wife to have an abortion and she died 6 weeks later. No one told me that my maternal grandmother knew all these secrets about my grandfather and his family and that when my parents met and realized she would have a problem with this situation, they lied to her about who my paternal grandfather (by then long dead) was. She was 91 years old before I let that secret out of the bag...and both of my parents were long dead and took their deception to the grave with them. Their marriage was a long and happy one...because they never shared the shame with anyone. The parents who feel the need to share all of this shame with their children are the ones who need their heads examined. All the kids need are names, dates and some sense that they belong to a bigger family. There is no way for a teacher to know about family skeletons. But there is a need, especially with all of the fractured families in this country, to help children connect with the fact that they have nice big, healthy families in their tree.
5. well,I personally know only who my grandparents were...and thats enough for me....I think its stupid of teachers to ask who the kids anccestors were
6. No I don't think it's a good idea. For the exact reasons you state. Also many children are adopted or don't even KNOW who their father is. A Senior in High-School maybe. In early grades no. In my research I have run across Census records that include (among others) Insane asylums, whore houses, "Drunk" etc. etc. in Occupation listings.
7. I think it is a wonderful idea for a kid to know at least the names of their ancestors. As mentioned earlier, sensitive information should only be revealed with discretion and consideration to the childs age and maturity level. When I started researching my family I learned that my great great grandfather hung himself. I was in a state of disbelief when I learned that. I asked my dad if he had ever heard that his great grandfather died in this manner and he said no. My dad had a cousin who was raised by my dads grandmother for over twenty years and even this cousin had NO idea that my gr gr grandfather died in this manner. You would think that by living with someone for over twenty years, you might have heard how their father died. The fact of the matter is that suicide had a huge stigma attached to it back then and not a word was uttered to the grandchildren about how grandpa died and honestly, that was how it was supposed to be. We are a society that gives too many details. We can filter what a young child takes away from this project. A class project simply isn't that involved. The names, the dates, and a few interesting facts should suffice. There is no need to write an epistle and no need to air the family's dirty laundry. The thing to remember is that it is a start, should they want to delve in further later. I think that it teaches that we are all individuals and that no two people are alike. I fail to see how it would be a humiliation to the student. If it is turned in to the teacher as an individual project, the other students would not be reading it anyway.
8. Well I like the idea of Kids doing Genealogy. It helps them find out about their family, and themselves, also teaches a little about Geography and how cities and states were formed and who formed them. I'm sure not everyone has people in their family that was hung. However it's history, and good or bad it's interesting. I think all kids should do that !
9. I can see where it could open up alot of law suite possibilities. Also What does one do if they are adopted, maybe the parents aren't ready to address all this yet, and this will open up a can of worms. Sometimes school kids are too immature to deal with it all. Suggesting it is one thing, doing it in class or as an assignment is another. Also it can be simplified, write me a story about your family or your family history. Then if can be about something they can relate to. I Think there are ways to teach the subject without going into details, they might find it intresting to look at a Census or show them how to do some of the basics. Or take them to a local Family History library as a field trip with parental permission. My son did his family tree, with quite an unfair advantage with Mom having done such a good job already. Wasn't quite fair to other kids. He also amazed me because I thought he could care less and when asked what was "Conscripted" in the Civil War mean,.... He promptly answered, Drafted at gun point...oh brother..... I have some explaining to do...
10. I think that it's a good idea to have an assignment whereby the kids bring in what they can find out, where they ask questions and write down what they're told. However, I disagree with telling the kids "you have to have 5 generations on this fan chart by Monday morning." Sometimes you don't know who someone's father is, or you're adopted, or a foster kid, or your family doesn't speak about a certain individual, and that should be okay without the kids getting a bad grade on the assignment.
11. I have never had my students research their family trees. In the back of my mind I did think of those who did not have knowledge of a family line, were adopted, etc. But, as with almost anything in life, there will always be a person who has an issue. I don't see this as a real issue, if the teacher handles it in a compassionate way. Why deny the other students the experience of putting together their family tree via oral interviews w/ relatives? An alternate assignment can be given to students who have a legitimate problem. For example, others could interview relatives on other topics, such as: What is the most memorable historic event that you can remember from when you were a child? I believe that doing this type of assignment can be like a treasure hunt of sorts. This can inspire students to find out more about history in general and that is not such a bad thing.
12. No, actually I firmly believe it is not appropriate for a class assignment. All you need to do, is drop on over to the law and ethics section, to see the huge number of questions concerning "how do I terminate the rights of my child's other parent?" "Can I get away with not putting bio dad's name on the birth certificate", etc etc. It is a sad FACT that many of today's children are in one parent homes, their parents were never married (sometimes mom does not even KNOW who dad really was), or their parents are bitterly divorced. My opinion is that if you think this is a very small percentage of children, you have your head in the sand. Years back, these things existed, but as a much smaller percentage. Children born to unwed mothers were almost always adopted. All of these issues are things that can be dealt with when kids are old enough to be less hurt by them. By making it a class project, children are being led to ask questions that MANY parents would prefer to not discuss. I love genealogy, and yes, I think people are entitled to know their background. Just not as a school assignment.
13. Parent should help with the assignment and if the boy is too young then maybe they should wait and tell him when he is better able to handle to handle the situation. I am adopted and did a family tree on my adopted family. I think it is a valuable lesson for kids.