RSSProper Demonstration Of Slavery Lands Teacher In Hot Water
J.J. Jackson | December 10, 2008
A “hands on” demonstration of the conditions slaves endured while being brought to the United States has landed a teacher in hot water with a parent whose daughter was part of the demonstration. It is important to understand exactly what happened and what did not happen here so this report I think sums it up best:
In a social studies class at Haverstraw Middle School, teacher Eileen Bernstein chose Gaby and another girl for a demonstration of conditions on ships that carried slaves out of Africa.
One African-American student raised her hand to volunteer for the demonstration. Gaby did not volunteer, but was chosen anyway.
“She taped their hands together, taped their feet together, and she had them crawl under the desk as if they were on a slave ship,” her mother told CBS 2.
Mrs. Shand said Gaby was traumatized. She questions the teacher’s judgment.
“There are other ways to demonstrate slavery. There’s movies, you don’t actually have to grab two kids and like put shackles on them,” she said.
The entire situation is nothing really that bad in reality. The teacher didn’t condone slavery and was demonstrating the horrors of the events. You even had one other child volunteer and she was not “traumatized” like Ms. Shand’s child so obviously the event was not that bad. It is not like they were whiped or raped like slaves were back in those days.
The teacher did appologize for Mrs. Shand and her daughters overreacting, but that was not good enough it seems because she did not appologize for using the demonstration.
My take is that Mrs. Shand has missed a golden opportunity to teach her daughter a couple valuable lessons. First, slavery happened – get over it. Second, we rightfully do not do these sorts of things any more and lots of folks of all colors died so that that is the case. Third, be eternally grateful you live in the United States and not in Africa where people routinely wind up floating down rivers in pieces.
But apparently Mrs. Shand is not in to teaching her daughter all that much and is more in to teaching her how to be a victim.
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One Response to “Proper Demonstration Of Slavery Lands Teacher In Hot Water”
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As a black man myself, I am having an equally tough time finding anything wrong with what the teacher did. I think the mother should stop harassing the school and teach her daughter to grow up.