Friday, March 4, 2011
"School District Apologizes"
A school district in Central Ohio apologized for using a mock slave auction to teach social Studies to Elementary school students. When I read this story it disturbed me tremendously. A ten year old African American boy played the role of a slave and he was offended by this. The class was divided into slaves and masters. The masters had to bid on the slaves and they had to touch their arms, check their teeth and legs. The reason why they checked all of this is to see if the slave was strong enough to be a slave. Now I wasn't back in the slavery times, but I've read about it and my dad have told me many stories that his mother told him. My heart ached after reading this story. Slavery was so painful to so many people and to have a class of Elementary children playing slave and masters was wrong. A spokeswoman for Chapelfield Elementary school in Gahanna, Ohio said the slave auction was part of the state required curriculum. She also stated that it was a one time curriculum lesson. I 'm just wondering who made the curriculum for this district and why make students do something so horrible? I'm just relieved that the district have apologized.
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Hi Monica! I understand your aggravation and frustration with the ways some things are done in the schools. I also get angry about people who want to say that the Holocaust did not happen. Prejudice against other people even dates back to Biblical times as described in the Book of Exodus when the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians. One of my favorite quotes is by author Herman Melville: "We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."
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