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Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play slave

Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

StillBallin75 said:
Humiliated enough to demand an apology from the teacher, apparently. I honestly don't see the value in role-playing something like this as there are other teaching tools available, but if the kid had a problem with it he should have made it known right then and there instead of making the teacher/school go through this bull**** after the fact.
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because 10 year olds are confident enough to tell a teacher they would feel humiliated? no, this is on the teacher.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

buck said:
I don't think that the role-playing exercise was a big deal and was probably a great teaching tool.

However, regarding your last comment, the kid was 10. So, i'm not sure that's fair to think he should have done somethign about it right there and then.
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The last line of the story in the link stated that the kid wanted an apology with the teacher. It just makes me wonder why he didn't bring it up in the classroom first rather than the press. 10-year-olds are certainly old enough to tell teachers they're uncomfortable with something when they have a problem.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

liblady said:
because 10 year olds are confident enough to tell a teacher they would feel humiliated? no, this is on the teacher.
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Seems like some of you take a very dim view of the abilities of a 10 yr old...lol. Really, how much courage does it really take to say "Miss _____, i think I wanna sit this one out?"
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

StillBallin75 said:
The last line of the story in the link stated that the kid wanted an apology with the teacher. It just makes me wonder why he didn't bring it up in the classroom first rather than the press. 10-year-olds are certainly old enough to tell teachers they're uncomfortable with something when they have a problem.
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It really depends on the kid, SB. Some kids are very shy and are afraid to talk to their teachers. There aren't many really confident 10 year olds who will stand up to a teacher and tell her she was wrong.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

American said:
Looks like you've become my official translater. ;) So only black students can be offended.
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Only black students have the potential to be offended, as well as their parents apparently.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Mellie said:
It really depends on the kid, SB. Some kids are very shy and are afraid to talk to their teachers. There aren't many really confident 10 year olds who will stand up to a teacher and tell her she was wrong.
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Guess I kinda feel sorry for the teacher through all this. Although I personally think he or she could have worked around the issue by using other teaching tools, I feel bad that she had to go through all this when her honest intent was just to educate her students.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

StillBallin75 said:
The last line of the story in the link stated that the kid wanted an apology with the teacher. It just makes me wonder why he didn't bring it up in the classroom first rather than the press. 10-year-olds are certainly old enough to tell teachers they're uncomfortable with something when they have a problem.
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I think that the kid wants an apology from the teacher may provide further evidence to a few of the claims I read in this thread, that the parent was the one that had an issue with it, not so much the kid.

At 10, I know I wouldn't have said something in class, but that could have just been me. Shrug. My kid's only 4, so what do I know. I'll have a better idea when she turns 10. So, let's revisit this in 6 years.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

buck said:
I think that the kid wants an apology from the teacher may provide further evidence to a few of the claims I read in this thread, that the parent was the one that had an issue with it, not so much the kid.

At 10, I know I wouldn't have said something in class, but that could have just been me. Shrug. My kid's only 4, so what do I know. I'll have a better idea when she turns 10. So, let's revisit this in 6 years.
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Yeah, I think this might be the case as well. If there was no intent to harm anyone then I don't think this should be an issue.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

StillBallin75 said:
Guess I kinda feel sorry for the teacher through all this. Although I personally think he or she could have worked around the issue by using other teaching tools, I feel bad that she had to go through all this when her honest intent was just to educate her students.
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do you think she feels humiliated? ;-)
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

spud_meister said:
Seems to me the student didn't care until his mother bought it up, and there've never been any complaints about this before, so it seems like one drama queen has blown it out of proportion.

EDIT: By drama queen I mean the mother, not liblady, I realised that could sound bad. :lol:
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could be there weren't black kids in that class before.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

liblady said:
do you think she feels humiliated? ;-)
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If I were the teacher, my feelings right around now would probably be along the lines of "this is some bull****..."
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Mellie said:
I'm imaginging liblady as a teacher....

Johnny throws an eraser at her. Instead of getting in his face and telling him he'll never, ever do that again and embarassing him in front of the entire class, she'll just say, "That's okay, Johnny. It just slipped out of your hand, didn't it?"

When teaching about how a bill becomes law, liblady knows the teacher beside her does a reenactment with Reps and Dems in Congress creating a bill and eventually getting to the President to sign. Liblady decides to just have the kids sit in their seats and listen to her read out of the social studies book because someone might be embarassed to be labeled "Democrat". And it's just not fair to pick one "President".

During PE, liblady decides to have the entire class run a mile. She knows Susie has a weight problem and really doesn't like to run. She knows Susie gets embarassed when she runs because she's really slow. So liblady tells Susie, "You don't have to run today. Just go sit over there and color."

You cannot shelter kids from humiliation. You'll ruin them. Lib, I have already said that if I knew a student wouldn't understand what was going on, I would choose another student. So, no, I'm not looking for students to humiliate. Good try, though.
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your post says more about you than it does about me.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

liblady said:
your post says more about you than it does about me.
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That makes no sense, but okay!
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

liblady said:
do you think she feels humiliated? ;-)
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Probably more angry and irritated. Do you think she's humiliated?
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Blackdog said:
WTF? Why the hell is slavery such a touchy subject??? It ended, it's over. None of us were slaves. Some people act like slavery ended yesterday, give me a break!

So the kids were "role playing" slaves and master, and for this the teacher (following school methods) should be fired? :doh
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I'm completely with you on this. What a load of PC nonsense. Scratch that, it's not Politically Correct, it's unbelievably incorrect to make a fuss about a history lesson when it's clear from the context that it was conducted properly, sensitively and inventively. The black kid wasn't made a slave because he was black, but by random. To make an issue of his colour would have been to miss the entire point of the lesson, which clearly some people did. That doesn't make it a bad lesson, it just means that some people have twisted the message of anti-racism and become neurotic drama queens.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

StillBallin75 said:
Humiliated enough to demand an apology from the teacher, apparently.
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For his mother to demand an apology.

I honestly don't see the value in role-playing something like this as there are other teaching tools available,
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But I'm guessing you haven't studied for 4-5 years in order to gain your teaching qualification. You wouldn't question a drug regime prescribed by a doctor if you had never studied medicine. Or perhaps you would. I just wish professionals these days were allowed to practice their profession without constantly having to look over their shoulder and explain themselves to armchair experts. Give 'em a break and let them do their job.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Mellie said:
Reenacting historical events is one of the BEST ways to teach social studies. Kids remember things like that. They don't remember "blah, blah, blah" from a social studies textbook. I read in the article that the teacher divided the class into masters and slaves. I'm pretty sure she just did it like any other teacher (1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2,...) 1s go over there - you're masters; 2s go over there - you're the slaves. It just so happened he was probably a 2. Something tells me that he went home and told his mom about his day and SHE got offended so he got offended too.

Now, if you have "masters" on the playground or in the cafeteria still treating the "slaves" as slaves, then you've got a problem. I read no indication of that.
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Yes, children remember things like that more. However, with history, you are not always dealing with the same sort of issues as you are in other subjects. Now you are dealing with issues that still seem part of real life, part of one's identity, and it is sensitive as can be. Should you reenact it, you are in fact dealing with ethical recreation of events, cultural insensitivity, historical revisionism on a personal and controversial level, and so forth. That is why education theorists need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Certainly so. It is more than likely it was the parent that was more offended. It was not merely an instance of minor parental squabbles though, was it? Now they have portions of the entire country aware of one lesson plan and are arguing about it. Pure history is not for the faint of heart, which is why one has to adapt it for public history, and it only becomes more adaptable the younger the student and the more oversight the instructor has.
 
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Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Ok, I haven't read through all the posts, but what's the real deal here? I can see this as not intentional or even a big deal. If she split the class up into "owners" and "slaves" and there were both white and black kids in both groups; then that's just what it is. If she purposefully singled out the only black kid in her class to play slave; then maybe there's something else here.

But I don't want to call for this lady's head without all the facts. It could be that the parents are just overreacting as well depending on the details.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Andalublue said:
For his mother to demand an apology.
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From the article:

Nikko, for his part, said he wants an apology from his teacher.
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And you're right, i'm not a teacher. But that was just my personal opinion.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

StillBallin75 said:
From the article:
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My mistake. Sorry about that.

And you're right, i'm not a teacher. But that was just my personal opinion.
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And you're entitled to have one. It's just that not being a teaching professional you're not entitled to have your opinion taken as seriously as those who have done the time and trained in the profession.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Andalublue said:
My mistake. Sorry about that.


And you're entitled to have one. It's just that not being a teaching professional you're not entitled to have your opinion taken as seriously as those who have done the time and trained in the profession.
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Are you a teacher? If so I have a lot of respect.

But I've been a student, learning about the same subject, and I personally think I received adequate instruction on the issue of slavery without having to roleplay anything. Wasn't trying to disparage the teacher's approach, just giving my two cents on the issue.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Andalublue said:
I'm completely with you on this. What a load of PC nonsense. Scratch that, it's not Politically Correct, it's unbelievably incorrect to make a fuss about a history lesson when it's clear from the context that it was conducted properly, sensitively and inventively. The black kid wasn't made a slave because he was black, but by random. To make an issue of his colour would have been to miss the entire point of the lesson, which clearly some people did. That doesn't make it a bad lesson, it just means that some people have twisted the message of anti-racism and become neurotic drama queens.
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This does not negate the fact that despite our anti-PC viewpoints (and it felt good to read you bash political correctness) that everything went wrong anyway.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Fiddytree said:
This does not negate the fact that despite our anti-PC viewpoints (and it felt good to read you bash political correctness) that everything went wrong anyway.
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Well, I was doing the opposite. I was pointing out political incorrectness. But leaving that aside, everything didn't go wrong. One student got upset at a class exercise that had been done before without problems. This is my point about drama queens. Is there really so little else newsworthy going on that the (accidentally) hurt feelings of one junior school kid are enough to cause a major policy debate? During the lesson, had the kid been abused (he wasn't), singled out because of his race (he wasn't), or visibly upset and distressed at the lesson (he wasn't until afterwards) THEN there may have been some cause for concern. It's a non-story turned into a story by journalists who have learned how to make something out of nothing, for profit.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Andalublue said:
It's just that not being a teaching professional you're not entitled to have your opinion taken as seriously as those who have done the time and trained in the profession.
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Baloney.

I agree with your opinion on the OP issue. I completely disagree that my opinion is any less valid than a teacher's.
 
Re: Bad lesson? Ohio elementary school in trouble after black student made to play sl

Andalublue said:
Well, I was doing the opposite. I was pointing out political incorrectness. But leaving that aside, everything didn't go wrong. One student got upset at a class exercise that had been done before without problems. This is my point about drama queens. Is there really so little else newsworthy going on that the (accidentally) hurt feelings of one junior school kid are enough to cause a major policy debate? During the lesson, had the kid been abused (he wasn't), singled out because of his race (he wasn't), or visibly upset and distressed at the lesson (he wasn't until afterwards) THEN there may have been some cause for concern. It's a non-story turned into a story by journalists who have learned how to make something out of nothing, for profit.
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I am not disputing the relative disharm. I am only suggesting that because of this societal bomb, we have to tread more carefully and not do the things that normally would increase student learning. We can go ahead and complain that it is not fair to have this turn into a controversy, but it did nevertheless. The school had to apologize, the media went on a frenzy, and there was just enough controversy to make this one hell of a lesson in public history. Wait until the students are more skilled and mature, less resolve in parental involvement, and then one can go into darker territory with more gusto (though always keeping in mind that you have to consider some of the same sensitivities).

In a laughing manner, I would only like to say in a joking tone, "welcome to public history." :D
 
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