Two weeks ago we featured a story about math homework that sparked outrage due to it’s insensitive use of a “slavery theme” in it’s word problems.
Now a social studies teacher in Melvindale Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, has angered some students and parents due to an assignment involving slavery. Students were asked to describe what their life would be like as a slave.
‘Slave’ Assignment Upsets Schoolchildren, Parents in Melvindale: MyFoxDETROIT.com
In recent events, one of the four teachers under fire for the insensitive math homework that was given to students has resigned. You can read the back story here and the update to the story here.
Is this a cut and dry case of poor decision making by the teacher or are students and parents taking this assignment the wrong way? How would you feel if your child came home with this assignment?
As a teacher this question is not as alarming as the math problem solving in georgia for many reasons. In social studies we often use “If I were” to help students truly grasp historical time periods and the culture of that era. My students did a paper on “My life in the civil war” where they wrote a realistic fiction diary entry as if they lived in that time and had a family member in the military. I think slavery is just a very sensitive subject and perhaps teachers need to inform parents and adminstrators about these types of potentially offensive projects before hand as a safeguard to themselves and as a poll of the views expressed in their students’ homes.
Exactly!! More involvement from all parties involved; teachers,students,parents, and administration is needed when discussing certain topics. I think it helps the overall learning process as well. Thanks for your input.
I agree. I remember writing stories when I was in school that were similar to this. If I grew up in ___ or if I were ____. I don’t think this is offensive at all. That is the premise for all written historical fiction–giving people an indication of how their life would have been if there were ___. This is much better than calculating the number of beatings a slave would get.
People are making too much out of the social studies assignment. These types of assignments are used throughout History classes to help the students better understand life styles/ideas, and what better way to do that than to put oneself in that situation? At least they are talking about it and trying to educate. So if teachers have to stop assigning students these types of assignments discussing slavery, are they also going to ask that students not do role playing or discussion of If I were a Romantic Writer, what type of style, subjects, etc. would I be interested in. There are more serious issues that these parents can and should be focusing on than how this teacher chooses to make the class captivating. If she is not being discriminatory or physically hurting the students, let well enough alone and be glad you have a teacher that is actually interested in getting your child to retain information and not just giving them handouts and not caring if they are learning at all.
So if the kids response was i would have killed my master or poison their food. Or I would have raped their daughters or wives. What would be the teacher attitude toward that student. For answering negative to a negative assignment. A better question would be what would you have done to change slavery? That’s positive. And as for math why use how many a slave pick instead
of jenny or henry….smh
If a child responds to ANY assignment with “I’d kill…. I’d poison….I’d rape” then they should be referred to a psychologist. “I’m offended by” would be the sane response to an assignment that offends. And slavery was not a positive thing, so why try to turn it into one? This teacher is trying to demonstrate just how terrible it was to build empathy and inform their students just how horrible a thing it is. That’s a positive lesson, so history is not repeated. There is nothing wrong with this assignment. All students, of all colors should be participating. And no, it is not fair to say that if a student is white it shouldn’t be as offensive. White cultures experienced slavery as well. When the holocaust section comes up and the students are asked to put themselves in place of a concentration camp prisoner that assignment will be for the same reasons. The only in appropriateness going on here is trying to rip into this teacher’s curriculum when they are obviously doing the right thing.