HARD LESSON: Educators Learn How Not to Teach Children About Slavery
Posted By The Editors | May 13th, 2011 (1 hour ago) | Category: Education | No Comments »
Print This PostBy Tarice L.S. Gray
Slavery as a topic needs no introduction to most Americans. But it does need an introduction to children; and how the facts of Negro Slavery in America has been taught to schoolchildren has often been as fraught with tension and controversy as other spheres what used to be know as “race relations.”
So, the foundation of this nation was built on the backs of enslaved workers, who were mostly black, setting the tone for a racially sensitive American society. The institution of slavery is considered in history, as a form of man’s inhumanity to man, and it’s impact still lingers. Congress went so far as to apologize in 2008 for the racism that was born out of slavery and its successor Jim Crow. But the subject that once divided a nation is an important part of our history. So it was not surprising that the lesson plan of a white Virginia elementary school teacher introducing her fourth grade class last month to the issue of slavery provoked a furious response.
What raised eyebrows was the six year veteran’s approach. She conducted a mock slave auction in which she required and made her class’ African- American students and mixed- race students to play the role of the human property to be sold, and her white students to be the “buyers” of their classmates of color.
The reaction from parents and educators was blistering, and the teacher faces disciplinary action.
Dr. Mary Frances Berry, the noted historian and educator, and former head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, believes punishment is appropriate becaus