Homework Assignment: Write Own Suicide Note

(Montmoreau-Saint-Cybard, France) Children aged 13 and 14 at a local secondary school were given the following homework assignment.

"You've just turned 18 and have decided to end your life. Your decision appears irrevocable. As a final effort, you decide to explain the reasons for your act.

"In setting out your self-portrait, you describe all the disgust you feel for yourself. Your text must bring up certain events in your life at the root of this feeling."

Given two local student suicides in recent months, parents and school administrators were shocked and horrified. The teacher was suspended.

My belief is that kids should be taught enlightening values and introduced to the opportunities and wonders of life, not given cookie crumbs leading to despair and death.