This is on ALex Krainers substack. An extract from a school trip is:
The children’s mission was to “Take photos of exhibits that connect to Private Peaceful,” and, “When you return to school, create a PPTX presentation.” The assignment also came with a warning: “If you do anything inappropriate, you will be punished accordingly,” a truly bizarre thing to toss into a school trip. The following tasks, listed in the leaflet, were part of their assignment:
- Military discipline/execution (“Anything about court martial, desertion, or punishment. … Would Charlie’s execution be considered fair based on what you’ve learnt?”)
- Letter or personal object (“What does this show about soldiers’ feelings? How can you relate it to Private Peaceful?”)
- Uniform/equipment (“How practical or comfortable does this look? … How did Tommo feel about his uniform / kit?”)
- Gas warfare (“How does this change your understanding of Tommo’s fear and panic during gas attack?”)
- Enlistment (“Tommo was able to enlist even though he was too young. Would you have been successful? Why or why not?”)
- Battle/weapons (“How does this change your view of war? Does this make what the Peaceful brothers went through more heroic or more frightening? Why?)
- The trenches (“Walk through the trench reconstruction and note your impressions…”)