Teacher sorry for binding girls in slavery lesson

[oberliner]

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.

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

Serious bad judgment on the part of that teacher.

[hobbit709]

1. That was exceedingly STOOPID!

[Window]

4. Agree. Monumentally stupid.

[Eurobabe]

2. Yeah, tying up ANY children in a classroom

is a BAD idea. What was that teacher thinking? :eyes:

[glowing]

3. My teacher did something with eye color.

She told all the blue-eyed children to sit on one side, and then all the rest of the colored eyed children to sit on the other for the day. Everytime we did an acivity, the blue-eyed children would get less quality items.. broken crayons, stubby pencils... while the other kids got all new crayons and new pencils and special items all day long... Then she explained the actual lesson of segregation... not exactly the same as the slave ships.. but effective enough that I remember that lesson from when I was 7. We blue-eyed children actually began saying we were happy with what we had, and that we'd make it ok.. and we pushed ourselves to try and do better all day because of the reduced "perks". At the end of the day we got it. We understood that it was really unfair. That the "special kids" weren't better because they had their eye color, and they didn't deserve to treat the blue-eyed kids with taunts and nasty responses. It was amazing how fast friends turned against friends when the teacher enabled them with the power of difference.

[oberliner]

5. Wasn't there a movie about that?

I seem to remember a TV movie about a similar classroom experiment that the students end up taking too far. I think it was with older kids though. Wish I could remember more details.

[malaise]

7. That was a great lesson

On the other hand, the teacher in the OP should buy a clue.

[aikoaiko]

10. What do you think the difference is between the two demonstrations?

Clearly Jane Elliott's brown eye blue eye demonstration is much more complex, but some of her kids were upset and crying too.

[glowing]

11. I'm not sure what happened at another school.

I was in VT and I was 7.. We didn't have any black children in our school at that time.. The one girl who was bi-racial, and my best friend... had moved after the 1st grade.. We didn't have another person in our school who was black until the 3rd grade.. and that was kind of weird anyway because her brothers and parents were very light, and she was darker and had "white" people hair (as she put it). I'm not sure her actual lineage. It was def. mixed.. or her mother was messing around with the milk man.. her brother's were cruel.. they always told her she was found on the doorstep.

Anyway, I don't remember anyone crying. We were quite young. AND we all got the message. It only lasted half the day... because math and science happened after lunch. No one beat each other up. It was kind of funny though because some of the blue-eyed children were the "popular" children..you know cliches.. I think that taught us more about how we treated other's the best. The funniest is that my eyes change between green and blue.. that day they looked blue.. and I was in the blue-eyed section.. Guess that's kinda like Obama being a mutt. LOL. of course, my lesson lasted a wee bit of time.. his has been a lifetime.

[aikoaiko]

8. Were you in Jane Elliott's class in Iowa or was this another teacher employing her technique

http://www.janeelliott.com/

[glowing]

12. Nope in VT.. and I was in 2nd grade.

[Karenina]

16. Jane Elliot used this teaching tool in 1968.

http://everything2.com/e2node/Blue%2520Eye%2520%252F%2520Brown%2520Eye%2520experiment

Blue Eye / Brown Eye experiment
by Baron_Saturday Wed Dec 06 2000 at 12:26:54

Blue Eye/Brown Eye is an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown eyes - they were denied access to play equipment, they were told they were stupid, and they were not allowed to socialize with members of the 'superior group'. The next day the roles were reversed, with the blue-eyed children treated as better.

The idea behind the experiment was to show the children first hand what prejudice was like. In this it was a success: on days when students were part of the inferior group, they showed lower test scores, less enthusiasm, and more hostility towards activities in the classroom.

The experiment has since been repeated with dramatic results elsewhere, with both children and adults. There are of course some major ethical questions raised by the original experiment - particularly the concept of 'informed consent'.

[glowing]

17. Ours was for half the day.. We weren't on an experiment path in the 80's.

It was a concept path.. I think it was rather effective. I would have been pissed if it went on for a longer test period and had impact on my learning. I think there is a line. I don't think my teacher passed it with the mini conceptual exercise. It actually helped us to think before being so cruel.. like kids can be.

[aikoaiko]

6. I'd need to know more before chastizing the teacher.

If the child was upset because she more fully realized the horror of slavery, then I'm not sure it was such a bad thing.

If the child was upset because she didn't want to do the activity and was kept bound despite her protests, then I'm more sympathetic to the parent's concerns.

[Callalily]

9. Irregardless of the

points you listed, NO child should be tied up in school! Absolutely no reason dictates such despicable behavior.

[glowing]

13. It sounds bad binding up the two black children.. but perhaps the teacher

asked for vollunteers and these two won the vollunteer schtik.

but I don't agree in binding any of the children. What if a fire broke out at the time of the lesson. I'm not sure what the entire lesson consisted of.. but it doesn't sound that great. The slave ships were horrible places.. who'd want to re-create that scenario.

[oberliner]

14. One of the two girls volunteered, the other did not

The mother of the student who did not volunteer seems to have initiated the complaint.

The rest of the class consisted of both White and Black children (among other races).

See this article for more info:

http://kdka.com/watercooler/school.slavery.lesson.2.881054.html

[aikoaiko]

15. Well, there you go, being involuntarily bound by tape is a bad thing.