Teacher On Leave For Having Mock Slave Auction and Using Slur in Class

[47of74]

Ass.  I hope the teacher gets fired.

Quote

A Massachusetts teacher who staged a mock slave auction and used the N-word in a 5th-grade class has been placed on leave, according to a letter sent to parents by the school’s superintendent.

The incidents took place at Margaret Neary Elementary School, according to CNN affiliate WCVB, and were reported to Gregory Martineau, superintendent of the Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough, in April. The school district is about 30 miles west of Boston.

In January, the teacher – who is not named in the letter – held an “impromptu mock slave auction” during a lesson on the Atlantic triangle slave trade, during which slave auctions were discussed, the letter said.

The second incident took place in April, and in that instance, the same educator used the N-word while reading a book, which was not part of the fifth-grade curriculum, to students, the letter said.

 

[justpassingthru]

When I lived in Pennsylvania, my school had "senior slave day". To modernize it, it was changed to "senior servant day". This was 2002 or 3. The younger students would "buy" a senior to help them raise money for their senior trips. Some students would have bid wars, others were just bought outright. 

It was *weird*

Edited June 1 by justpassingthru

[Alisamer]

That is all kinds of messed up and I have no idea what that dude must have been thinking.

That said, at least the kids are being taught something about slavery, I guess? I grew up in the South and in the 80s it really didn't come up much. I had one history teacher who referred to the Civil War as "the war between the states" and went on about how it was about states' rights and that slavery as an institution was on a path to die out due to economic factors anyway.

So clearly my school education on that matter was biased.

I've been to a couple museums that have extensive information about the slave trade, and how people were valued and sold, and it's fascinatingly horrifying. One thing that struck me was that slaves weren't terribly expensive. Like, that's a PERSON. You're buying a whole PERSON, and you don't just get their labor, you literally own them. And adjusted for today's prices most of them cost less than a used car would today, sometimes much less. It's mind-boggling and horrifying anyone ever thought that was OK. 

So good for teaching the kids about slavery, very bad for going about the worst possible way to do it. I'd say I hope he was fired but there's a shortage of teachers so maybe some intense continuing education during a suspension might be an option?