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.

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.

Family History Expos TV interviews Gena Philibert Ortega of Genealogy Wise

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