I once substituted for a 5th grade teacher for a week, and during that week all the 5th grade classes were to read the book "Number The Stars", which is set during the WW2 German occupation of Denmark. To make the story more interesting, I told the class some things that my wife had observed and experienced during that time. She was 8 years old when the occupation ended in 1945. I told the class that there was a curfew imposed during that time that forbade most citizens from being outdoors after the curfew time, and that the father of one of her friends was shot and killed when he stepped outside to usher his own kids into the house. I also told the class that one evening my wife and her older brother were late getting home after the curfew time, and as punishment their father took a razor strap to them. The other 5th grade teachers had prepared a test on the story to be given to all the classes on the day we finished reading the book. For my lot, I added a couple of extra questions based on the stories I had told them. One of those questions was "What happened to Mr. Lundbæks wife for getting home late after curfew?" Several of the kids wrote that she got shot or that she got killed. On the last day, I brought from home a VCR tape of scenes from Denmark, intending to show.only a couple of the segments that showed scenes of Denmark that I had selected for them. During that VCR presentation, I got distracted by some 5th grade prank in the back of the room, and before I could shut it off, it ran well into a scene I particularly did not want of show them of sun bathers on a beach.
-- Edited by lundbaek on Thursday 9th of December 2010 10:14:07 PM
