High Schoolers Forced To Lay In Dark Room, Wrists Bound As 'Slavery Project'...

originally posted by: BlueJacket
a reply to: seasonal

And this is why we school at home k-12
My child has enough to worry about learning Math, English and Science...she doesnt have any need for racially charged guilt

You mean, you never heard of the three S's?

Science, Social Studies, and Slavery

originally posted by: TonyS
A reply to: NerdGoddess

Frankly I do not understand why this is being done in US schools. Slavery has been over for how many years? Should German schools march kids to Auschwitz and make them stand bound and naked in the showers while tear gas is being pumped in to teach them the evils done by the German people during the Nazi regime?

And statistics provided above indicate that evil white kids only account for 4% of this schools student body! It is 72% Asian. I dont recall any Asians being involved in the US slave trade.

Honestly, is there no way forward?

LOL Absolutley NOT just as children here shouldn't be stripped naked, oiled up, put on a selling box, and be put up for mock auction, or put out in fields to pick cotton....... But would it kill them to take a field trip there, stand in one of the old shower buildings and watch a video or learn about what happened? I don't think so.

There has to be a line though. I don't think it matters what your race or skin color is when you're learning about history, what matters is you learn it.

-Alee

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: intrepid
a reply to: Aazadan

Are you a teacher? This sounds like the elitist BS that I dealt with with my kids when they were younger. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. The only difference here is that you can hide behind internet anonymity.

I'm not a teacher. I don't hide this opinion behind anonymity either. I've written several papers on the subject,

Oh cripes. Flashback to college. "I'm an authority. I've written a book(papers)". You don't even see the problem with your argument. If I'm not qualified to make decisions for my children, who has raised them 24/7, who is better at it than I am? Kids aren't cookie cutter beings. They are all different. How's that for a compelling argument?

Go look at that OP video again, cover up the big bad lettering spelling "SCHOOL SCANDAL", ignore the dramatic "Live" and in front of the school shot, ignore the overly dramatic underscore stating "SCHOOL SLAVE SHIP CONTROVERSY". Pay heed to the overly dramatic tone of voice that is being used.

The reporter states: "at least it has been for the last 10 years or so. It's also part of the curriculum that is shared across the country, but it's not going to happen, we understand, here at this school anymore."
The first kid states: "It's loose tape it's not duct-tape, it's not tied really tight you know, it's very loose just to give some sort of similar experience to the slavery thing(?)"


The letter the parents got:

Dear 8th Grade Parents,
In the coming days, Mrs. Olson, Mr Jeans, and I will be teaching our students about the slave system in colonial America. In order to help students understand the psychological impact of slavery on Africans brought over to this country, all of us do a simulation activity in our classes that tries to recreate the voyage that slaves went on across the Atlantic Ocean, on their way to the new world. We will be acting as slave ship captains and your son/daughter will be pretending to be a slave. Specifically, when class starts, we will sternly tell them to line up outside the room, use masking tape to "tie" their wrists together, make them lay on the ground inside the room (which will be dark) shoulder to shoulder with each other (boys and girls are in seperate rows) and then while they lay there, have them watch a clip from the film "Roots".

Let's recap some key points here:
- The exercise has never been an issue in the last 10 years.
- No minor has come forward with an allegation of abuse.
- The kids were only lightly restrained, which means they could escape at any time.
- They were fully supervised.
- They had to watch a "clip" of the film, not the entire film.

How anyone can make it out that this is indoctrination, a sick joke, kids held against their will, cultural appropriation or whatever inflammatory speak is beyond me. It's a futile exercise which the kids are very probably gratefull for, for not having to spend time at their friggin desks. You could make a good case of not finding the exercise the best way of teaching about this particular topic, but that's about all the case you can make.

ONE parent across your whole country has a problem with this over the past 10 years till now and all of a sudden it's major news...
That 2 minute clip can teach a lot about how dramatisation in media works, try and see the tree through the forest. They're looking for views, not truth nor objective reasoning in the least.

When I was in high school....70-76.......we used to have slave day where they would "auction" off students to be another students slave for the day....they had to carry their "owners" books between classes and get their food tray for them at lunch.

If they did that now, their would be lawsuits flying all over the place.

They did raise a lot of money for school activities though. The students volunteered to be the "slaves", it was not like they were forced to do it or anything.

We only had two black girls (sisters) in a class of 300...one got expelled and never finished school, the other was a straight A student.

a reply to: Balans

As I have said a number of times in this thread, there is something not right with the whole thing. I find it very hard to believe that there has been no complaints and no fathers loosing their sh on a admin. But maybe I am against having kids bound and put on the floor in a dark room to learn.

originally posted by: Bone75
You avoided my question. Have you ever experienced anything as horrible as being bound and helpless in real life?

Bound? No.
Helpless? Many times.

originally posted by: badw0lf
Hmm, those 8 year old black kids in the class, were they also bound and put in a dark room? I mean, all they know about slavery is what they're taught. Shouldn't they also be bound, to show them what it was like?

Or do they get a free high horse pass, while the inferior white kids get treated to the 'education' they deserve for being born white?

What is the outrage? that some people don't get the outrage...

Why wouldn't they? Treat everyone equally.

originally posted by: Aedaeum
So tell me, why argue at all if you already knew your argument was moot? Just to show how "intellectual" you are? How much "better" you grasp the situation than everyone else? All I see is a misguided ego, greedy for attention and self-congratulation.

Because I genuinely want an answer. I think the people who say the schools are failing, and pull their kids out to home school (generally, these same people have strong anti college philosophies too, or are simply incapable of understanding things like common core) are outright harming their kids. I have yet to hear a justification for it better than "because I'm the parent", and obviously that justification doesn't fly for me. It's claiming authority, but it doesn't give that authority any credentials, or even establish why that authority should exist.

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
Well, to clarify, we weren't bound, and I don't think any kids should be bound either. Was it just bracelets, or were the kids wrists harmed? Because this is 2017 and while I think it's necessary to educate our babies on the history of this world and this nation, I don't think we need to subject them to binding.

-Alee

Wrists lightly bound with masking tape, it sounds like the kids could break it if they wanted to.

originally posted by: sugarmonkey
Are you being serious? That is the biggest crock of psycho babble crap I have ever heard!

Why?

originally posted by: intrepid
Oh cripes. Flashback to college. "I'm an authority. I've written a book(papers)". You don't even see the problem with your argument. If I'm not qualified to make decisions for my children, who has raised them 24/7, who is better at it than I am? Kids aren't cookie cutter beings. They are all different. How's that for a compelling argument?

No, I'm not an authority, I brought up the papers issue to counter your insinuation that this is the stuff people only say when protected by anonymity.

Why does raising your children qualify you to make decisions for them?

Lets take a simple example: Going out to dinner. Who is best qualified to make that choice? You? Your spouse? Your kids? What gives that person the qualification... Do they know the complete menus and ingredient lists of everything in every restaurant? Do they know all the price points? If it's a combinations of everyones input, then you're saying your children have the same level of decision making as you do. So what gives you authority as the parent?

Going back to your argument, lets go with the idea that kids are unique individuals (not something I agree with, but lets go with it). Are you an expert on everything that goes into their values? Part of being unique means that they're different from you, yet raising them means you're placing your own values and experience onto them. Why is that right or fair? Furthermore, how can you even say that your own values you're trying to pass down are correct? Because they worked for you? Or have you actually proven, or at least reasoned them to be correct? How have you done so? Since you're unique from your parents, wouldn't this also mean that your parents taught you wrongly at some point as there's going to be some differences of opinion? How have you figured out where your parents messed up?

a reply to: Aazadan

So what is the use? If you really want the kids to experience slavery, lets do it for real.

This is a crock of crap. You do not need to get polio to understand it was a horrible disease. And trying to show 14 year olds how bad slavery was in in the 19th century is a fools bet. No one alive was a slave in the US and no one alive was a slave holder. It is another foot note in history on how terrible humans can be for $$$.

This curriculum was probably developed by someone with a degree in African-American Studies.

There is a seriously messed up agenda being worked out in our country and this type of hype is no attempt to bring us all together. I would suspect it's agenda is about something else entirely. Be your own judge.

Pay attention to what public schools are pushing down the throats of our youth disguised as something else.

a reply to: intrepid

I'd have to say an equal combination of both.

This is seriously disturbing. Yet another reason, as if we really needed more, that home schooling is the way to go.

My parents would have gone 'round the twist over this.

a reply to: Konduit

More than a little truth to that, I'm afraid.

I'm rather curious...

Can these, and I use the term loosely, teachers not acquire copies of journals of not only the ship captains of these slave vessels, many of which are chilling reading, or descriptions from the former slaves themselves of what it was like?

Or...

Pictures tell a story, too.

This is how I learned that slavery is a horrid disease that needs stamping out. One can also juxtapose the old pictures with the reality of today.

But no, that would require they actually do their flippin' jobs, wouldn't it?

we shouldnt forget slavery..... but im not going to be sorry about it either

a reply to: Aazadan

Abstracts and absolutes do not an argument make. Remember what Obi Wan said:



No one knows everything but experience gives more than a modicum of knowledge. Your argument fails.

Did they simulate a tribal conflict, being captured and then being sold off to slavers as well?

Of course not.

There are many books written about what happened back then and they are far better at helping others immerse themselves into what such an experience could be than such a stupid role play.

Here is an idea, teach the kids to read and assign such a book to them. That would actually require teaching from teachers.