Suicide culture rampant: pupils told to write suicide notes

[Heladys]

Or one could just tell them it fucking hurts to kill yourself and your family will suffer for a lifetime due to your stupid decision. That might have the same effect without potentially setting off sensitive kids.

Sensitive kids are already being set off, by far more innocuous shit. Frankness about hard topics is nothing to fear.

[The One Percent]

Should we ban all classical literature that has suicide in it as well?

[AeneasBK]

THe biggest obstacle for your childrens' education is "other kids parents"

[Manabomb]

I don't see an issue with it, honestly. These kids suffering from "depression" (lmao.) have really, really overprotective parents. I don't even understand what could be offensive about a suicide note school project, because frankly I'd rather kids be grappling with those thoughts early rather than keeping them under the surface.

One could argue that public school isn't the place for that, and I'd agree to an extent. Lots of things that happen in public schools, however, that shouldn't really happen in public schools. I'd start focusing on things that actually bring harm to students first, but you know. That's just logic and shit.

[Crissi]

I can see the value in this for mentally healthy students, but the assignment should in no way be mandatory. Being that I was fairly depressed in school, asking me to write a suicide note would have made that so much worse.

[Socialhealer]

Shakespeare is awful enough to be barraged with such trash, the suicide note should of been easy to write, a few hours of Shakespeare would make me suicidal.

[Manabomb]

Shakespeare is awful enough to be barraged with such trash, the suicide note should of been easy to write, a few hours of Shakespeare would make me suicidal.

"I'm going to shit on the source material on a video game website sub forum because it makes me look edgy and cool, plus suicide notes are easy for me."

I feel as if nothing was actually gained here.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

idk, seems like a great lesson in self reflection. But really if this assignment is the final straw that leads to one acting on suicidal thoughts, then it was bound to happen anyways.

The biggest issue does not seem to be that the notes would be pushing kids towards suicide...it's that those kids have friends and classmates that have previously committed suicide already and that the assignment is causing them a lot of distress.

It's sort of like "Hey, remember that time your best friend killed themselves?"

[Darknessvamp]

Can't believe some of the people in this thread. No it's not a clever exercise telling kids to write your own suicide note, it's fucking stupid and frankly the worse way of approaching any of Shakespeare's plays. Hell when I studied Romeo and Juilet and Macbeth for english it was quite straight forward to analyse Romeo and Lady Macbeth's motivations for suicide and Shakespeare's portrayal of it through discussion without having to resort to considering how you'd sign off if you were planning to off yourself. I mean the fuck?

[Sunaka]

I think this is a great assignment in principle. It has self-reflection, it allows extreme expression, and for an attentive/caring teacher, it can help find kids who need some help. Based on the comment that multiple kids had taken their own lives semi-recently though, I think it would've been best postponed or taken off the year's curriculum. There also definitely needed to be an optional aspect to the assignment for those who would've had problems handling it.

[Socialhealer]

"I'm going to shit on the source material on a video game website sub forum because it makes me look edgy and cool, plus suicide notes are easy for me."

I feel as if nothing was actually gained here.

no i did Shakespeare in school, it was mind-numbingly boring and i learned nothing, nor do i ever care to, but cool and edgy? no i don't give a flying fuck what you think of me hahaha.

[Radaney]

Click-bait title aside, this obsession with labeling shit as a "culture" is getting old. Learn how to use words if you're going to actually use them.



And neither do you. But the fact of the matter is that if someone's on the brink of doing something, like committing suicide, some final "trigger" that causes them to follow through is not to blame, as the real issue existed beforehand.

They're both to blame, so it's better to avoid either.

[vhatever]

The idea isn't necessarily bad, but it's certainly inappropriate for this age group in question.

[Deleted]

Suicide is, frankly, an important subject that needs to be covered. Especially if you're doing Macbeth, or more critically, Romeo and Juliet.

This may not have been the best way to go about it, but I see what the teacher was driving at; getting the students to realize that people who suicide aren't "broken", that they had reasons for ending their lives. Not all important lessons are happy, pleasant ones.

This a lot. But bait titles like this just turn these subjects into meaningless baits - who gets profit? The guys who hate humanities or science in general.

[mvaliz]

"suicide culture"? By definition that's an oxymoron... as nobody would be alive to continue said "culture".

In short: please don't lie, sensationalize and exxagerate what's really going on.

[kail]

Mine would be simple, from Analyze This.

Life is bullshit.
I can't fucking take it anymore.

Signed,
The dead guy

[vhatever]

Mine would be simple, from Analyze This.

Life is bullshit.
I can't fucking take it anymore.

Signed,
The dead guy

FU

And thanks for all the porn.

[Endus]

I can see the value in this for mentally healthy students, but the assignment should in no way be mandatory. Being that I was fairly depressed in school, asking me to write a suicide note would have made that so much worse.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. It's an important subject (especially for students who are suffering depression or the like and are at-risk), but it needs to be handled delicately, and this assignment wasn't. I see what the teacher was going for, but it was poorly thought-out.

[Orcs]

I personally don't see much of an issue with this lesson. Whether we like it or not, the world is not all sun shrines and rainbows.... I could see this exercise getting young adults to really think about things, and perhaps some who have considered suicide might change their mind when forced with the gravity of such a choice while in a stable state of mind.

[Xar226]

It's a very interesting assignment, but probably too intense for the age of the students that seem to be involved. And of course you do risk that "a friend just committed suicide" situation that appears to have cropped up as well.

Still, if everybody involved--and that includes the parents who think their energy is better spent yelling at the teachers involved--actually approached it as a good opportunity to talk about mental health and suicide rather than a topic to be avoided at all costs it could do a huge amount of good, and it may even save lives.