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Slave auction, then recess.
This is racist.
A helpful pointer for those pursuing a career in education:
Don’t perform a slave auction in your classroom.
While you’re at it, don’t incinerate the building or shit on the principal’s desk. One would expect there are some things that would be universally accepted as Things Not To Do.
In an era where scrutiny is at an all-time high it is a miracle that someone could have the idea to perform a mock slave auction in an elementary school and that the idea could make its way from electrical impulse to motor function without being cockblocked by common sense.
It shouldn’t happen but it did. In Virginia of all places. Here’s the chain of events:
- Jessica Boyle, a teacher at Sewells Point Elementary School in Norfolk wanted to teach her children a valuable lesson about American history. So far, so good…
- The lesson involved the Civil War, a pivotal part of American history and one in which Virginia played a prominent role (SPOILER: for the losing team). So far, still going well…
- She then separated the white kids from the black kids and performed a mock slave auction. Now look what you’ve done!
On one hand, America as a whole seems to always be looking for a reason to get offended. Race, sexuality, religion, and other divisive topics always lead to oversimplification and too tender a touch. But, a mock slave auction?
Pretty tough to argue that one.
The school issued an apology, though there’s no word on the reprimand for the teacher. It’ll be interesting to see if she’ll get abolished admonished for her actions.
In an era where scrutiny is at an all-time high it is a miracle that someone could have the idea to perform a mock slave auction in an elementary school and that the idea could make its way from electrical impulse to motor function without being cockblocked by common sense.
For crying out loud… I got an A+ (99.7 out of 100 possible grade points!) in 8th Grade US History (which is where we learn about the Civil War) and no mock slave auctions were required to achieve that level of education. We did fake civil war diaries, and other projects all without angering or ostracising minorities. You can delve into some difficult topics without getting offensive, it just takes a teacher with a creative mind
PS For any educators out there, Joy Hakim’s A HISTORY OF US is probably the best text book series on American history out there for young people, IMHO
Clearly, this teacher had tenure.
Not sure what grade it was, but we were studying WW2…Nazis. My teacher was trying to explain to us the group psychology of why Nazis put up with…well…Nazis. Were the Germans just evil people? Why would anyone, ANYONE, condone the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children, right? So, she devised a clever little psychology experiment, and put it into action on us. She gave us a pop quiz, waited for us to finish, then picked out one or two kids in the class, and told them, loudly, in front of the class, that every one else did good, but they failed. Basically, embarassed the shit out of them. Did something CLEARLY wrong and immoral. She verbally berated them in front of the class, etc. And you know what? No one, not ONE of us who didn’t fail the “test” stood up to defend those two kids. After a minute or tow of this, actually, one one of the kids, a girl, started crying, she stopped, and let us in on what she had just done.
Was that right or wrong of my teacher to do?
Regardless, that is a lesson I will NEVER forget, for as long as I live.
Ok, back on topic now.
Doesn’t surprise me what your teacher did, Kevin. I was suspended for a month in 10th grade, and my honors english teacher apparently made jokes about me while I was out of school. It wasn’t part of any lesson plan though, he was a real life nazi (to draw on your metaphor)
Anyway,
Your teacher may have had a larger point, but I don’t think she made it in the right way IMHO. By picking on students who *did* actually fail the test, she was deliberately targeting the emotionally vulnerable. Better to have picked an A student and mocked them for their handwriting or something trivial, that way when the ruse was revealed, they’d not feel so bad since they knew that the teacher really WAS pleased with how they’d done
and the fact that this mock “slave auction” where black children were forcibly enslaved took place in the deep south was not lost on me
Oh, and this was in SC, lol.