UK educational guide on terrorism

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A new teaching resource in the United Kingdom that compares Islamic terrorists to early-1900s suffragettes, instructs teachers to instill feelings of “tolerance and respect” into students and suggests exercises such as writing letters to terrorists in order to better understand their motives.

The book, “Talking About Terrorism: Responding to Children’s Questions,” which was published just one week before the deadly Manchester bombing, is an instructional guide for teachers and parents on how to talk to students as young as 7 about terrorists and terrorist acts.

The guidebook, according to its description by publisher Brilliant Publications, hopes to “stimulate critical thinking and encourage creative investigation of key themes.”

“Each section has inspiring stories of peacemaking and reconciliation, about the power of love over hate, of non-violence over violence and the importance of tolerance and respect,” the description says.

According to Heat Street, the book also suggests that children be invited to “write a letter to a terrorist. If they could ask a terrorist six questions, what would they be?”

Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, criticized the book, saying, “This is a crackpot idea based on the misguided notion that primary school children must engage with, and show ‘respect’ for, religious fanatics who are seeking to kill them,” the Express reported.

“The primary school classroom is not the place to humanise (sic) terrorism by ‘pretend dialogue’,” McGovern said.