I bet that's the most persistent thing you remember from that teacher. Effective education! And probably tipped you away from the idea that a nuclear war might be winnable, and towards disarmament.
Our teacher showed us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_Darkness for similar reasons, I think.
That's my recollection anyways. I read it in 6th grade, so it's been well over a decade since I read it. I really ought to re-read it.
So, I'm sure that despite the effort the UK Government was well aware of its futility.
There are maps from the early 1950s - pre H-Bomb - which show large areas of the UK reduced to radioactive desert after a relatively small attack.
Unloading tens or hundreds of larger weapons on the UK would do very little to increase its survival prospects.
From that POV, Threads is terrifying but optimistic. It's not clear anyone at all would survive a full exchange. Spending a few years in a bunker would simply delay the inevitable.
All of life could be said to be merely delaying the inevitable.
I am reminded of the story of a man running away from a tiger when he reaches the edge of a cliff and falls over, managing to grab hold of the edge and hanging by one hand. Below him is certain death from the fall, above him is death by the tiger. The man notices some sweet dew dripping from a blade of grass by his face. With moments left to live, he licks the dew.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/in-the-eve...
Yes - that AA - the Automobile Association....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/nuclear-missile-cod...
As adults, we can choose to not see it. As children, in a classroom, we are generally not. Peer pressure and adult authoritarian rule should not be taken lightly. Especially when used to scare children into compliance and leave them lasting marks into adult-hood.
-Speaking as someone that still has irrational issues with being alone, or being alone in the dark. After watching age-inappropriate movies as a child.
You'd be amazed at the kinds of films that were shown to young people in an effort tochange their behaviour (with no evidence that it would actually do so).
My favourite example was of a UK tv show Nationwide that got a studio full of young people to watch US style shock films about road and rail safety. The films were so gruesome they couldn't be shown on broadcast tv at that time of the evening. There were shots of young people throwing up and feinting and having to be taken out of the studio, weeping.
(This is mentioned on a TV discussion forum somewhere, but I can't find it. :-/)
Fear is a choice.
Also many people have overcome much greater trauma than 'age-inappropriate movies'... that's absurd.
I'm pretty sure while it could be considered mildly negligent to give into that pressure, I'm also confident it doesn't constitute child abuse. At least some of us were old almost enough to enlist with the army, I think its good to balance that out with an idea of just what that might entail.