Slavery lesson gone too far?

[akflightmedic]

What are your thoughts, opinions, comments, concerns?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/ap_on_re_us/slave_lesson

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – A white social studies teacher attempted to enliven a seventh-grade discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls, prompting outrage from one girl's mother and the local chapter of the NAACP. After the mother complained to Haverstraw Middle School, the superintendent said he was having "conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons."

"If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea," said Superintendent Brian Monahan of the North Rockland School District in New York City's northern suburbs.

The teacher apologized to the mother who complained and her 13-year-old daughter during a meeting Thursday that also included a representative of the local NAACP. But the mother, Christine Shand of Haverstraw, said Friday she thinks the teacher should be removed from the class.

"I think the teacher should have gotten some discipline," Shand said. "I know if that was me, I would be uncomfortable going back to that class. Why should my daughter have to switch?"

Monahan refused to say what, if any, measures were taken against the teacher, Eileen Bernstein, who was still working on Friday. The school district said she was not available for comment.

"We encourage our teachers to deliver the curriculum in a variety of ways, to go beyond just reading the textbook," the superintendent said. "We don't want to discourage creativity. But this obviously went wrong because the student was upset."

On Nov. 18, Bernstein was discussing the conditions under which African captives were taken to America in slave ships. She bound the two students' hands and feet with tape and had them crawl under a desk to simulate the experience, Monahan and Shand said. Monahan said the girls were not the only blacks in the class.

Gabrielle Shand burst into tears at home, her mother said.

"There are other ways to demonstrate slavery," Christine Shand said Friday. "It doesn't matter the color of the kids, it's just not right to tie them up. My daughter is still upset, still embarrassed. She didn't go to school today."

Wilbur Aldridge, director of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the history demonstration, first reported in The Journal News, "went wrong when she started to do that binding."

"I don't care what color, no one should be put in the position of having their hands and feet bound," he said.

Aldridge said he feared that the teacher still "didn't get it" after their meeting. He said the teacher apologized "because Gabrielle was upset, not because she admitted she did something wrong."

Shand said she had not decided whether to take any further action, including filing a lawsuit.

[ERDoc]

I think it depends on the circumstances. If the teacher singled out these two (regardless of their color) and made them do it, then he may have gone too far. If they knew exactly what they were going to do and agreed to it, then too bad for them. I graduated HS in 1993 and something like this would have been hilarious to see and would have been funny to be the "victim." No one would have thought twice about it. I guess in this day and age we need to coddle these fragile egos. Anyone read that article about not giving out zeros or Fs? I think it was on ABCnews.

[akflightmedic]

I agree. The age group of the class is old enough to grasp the concepts of the lesson without any misunderstandings. If the lesson was presented in a logical fashion, and the teacher asked if anyone had ever been bound, could anyone imagine being bound and having to crawl through tunnels to survive, this could have been a very valuable lesson.

If the teacher singled someone out and this was a "punitive" lesson, by all means this was a foolish lesson.

I think the class may have actually enjoyed the lesson, gained some valuable knowledge and experience form it, and then when they went home to share the race card was thrown. I think this is an over reaction on behalf of the parents along with their friendly neighborhood NAACP.

( I graduated in '93 as well, I thought you were older)

[itku2er]

Well at that age the child could have spoken up in class and said they didn't want to do it. The story doesn't say that either child objected to the act in the classroom. Wonder if she asked for volunteers would the outcome still be the same?

[Michael]

"If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea."

No. It was a bad idea, but not for that reason.

If students' being upset were the index of bad ideas, students would never leave their comfort zones, and hence never learn anything.

It was a bad idea because the purpose of schooling is so to strengthen students' imaginative and reasoning capacities so that they become able to create inwardly what they would otherwise have to experience outwardly. Conscience and compassion arise from being able invisibly - that is, without physical props - freely to transpose oneself into another's place.

Experiencing the undesirability of being tied up is not learning; a beagle can (and must) respond to that. To invoke a figure familiar in these parts, that's training rather than education.

To gain valuable experiences through mentally and emotionally participating in a verbal description, a narrative, a drama - offered by a teacher who has gained the trust of pupils by her moral standing and demonstrated empathy - that's education, which can subsequently be abstracted and implemented at will, by choice, through the students' volition. That's what constitutes specifically human learning. It takes a little longer, but the effects endure.

I know she meant well, but the teacher ought to be horsewhipped.

Oops, what did I say...? :oops:

[AZCEP]

The students should have been questioned about what they understand about the experience, but using the physical to reinforce the imaginative is a useful tool. For a thirteen year old to truly understand some degree of training might be useful. You can talk about the experience all day long, but until you are in the situation you can't truly understand it.

I wonder if it would have been acceptable to bind some of the white kids. Would the NAACP have a problem with that, or would they even get involved at that point. The sensitivity of the students is to be expected, but do we really believe that long-term harm has been done by a ten minute exercise?

I am curious what direction the history class will go for the Holocaust, or the discussion of Russia under Stalin though. :shock:

[p3medic]

I wonder what Eileen Bernsteins parents would have thought if her Social Studies teacher decided to shave her head, staple a yellow Star of David to her shirt and stuff her in a broom closet to simulate being stuffed in a cattle car and shipped to Auchzwitz? I'm betting the lesson would have been lost on her too. I'm no touchy feely liberal, but I think this was extremely poor judgement on the teachers part, regardless of her intent.

[itku2er]

"

I know she meant well, but the teacher ought to be horsewhipped.

Oops, what did I say...? :oops:

What is this world coming to.... Michael lost his niceness

[firedoc5]

I think the point of the lesson could have been made without binding anyone up. That is all.

[Arctickat]

Interesting...one wonders, what would have happened if this had been a male social teacher and two female students? I know, it's a "what if' but I have a feeling it would have been a far louder outcry. Or, "What if" the two students had been white instead? The black community is still quite acutely aware of what slavery did to their ancestors, but do that to a couple of white kids and see how they perceive it.