Binding their feet and hands was to show how it felt to be enslaved; binding them was to show the class how awful something like this truly is, 'up close and personal'.Do you think it was wrong under ANY circumstances? The teacher says it was for the lesson. The parents are considering suing (SURPRISE!).
What do you think? Please read the link......I'd love your opinion.
UPDATE: I just viewed a video news story on this. The mother is worried about how her daughter will do the rest of the year in school because she was "so traumatized", and one child volunteered but the teacher picked a girl who hadn't instead.
z
15 comments:
My first thought was yes, way wrong. My Wife said only if you tie up the entire class. If one of the students was claustrophobic do you suppose this could have gotten real ugly.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
What, were they tied up for a few days or something. Seriously, what's the big deal, if it was just a couple of minutes and the kids agreed, then that's fine, the article didn't say whether they disagreed but sort of implied it.
If it was against their will, then no, it's not right. Otherwise i don't see a problem.
David..While I do get your wife's point, really do...I think that only a few were tied up is a bigger 'lesson'..it OUGHT TO evoke some guilt and uncomfortableness.. like "Wow...people could see other humans tied up and not run to try to free them?" or something?
If they were claustrophobic, I'm sure the teacher would have quickly reacted. (thanks..I always thought it was clausTORphobic..and I thought I was a good speller!!)
MK...I'm with you. WHAT is the big deal? I'd be PROUD if I were a Black woman to say "Ya, tie me up. I want to see how bad it really was and I want others to see how it feels to watch....we all ought to know that and never forget..." I'd have no problem being tied up for a few minutes...I would have a problem if everybody walked off and LEFT me, though.
And yes, NEVER against their will. But, I can't believe that was the case...
I'm going to ask Maria from Namaste....She's a Black American, I'd like her input on this very much. I well respect her values and her opinions.
This was incredibly stupid. The teacher was just BEGGING for trouble. Even if you have the best of intentions, there are some things you just don't do...even if you take the racial factor out of the equation. Physical restraint is always a serious issue, even when there is a very practical and compelling reason to tie a person down. Teaching a history lesson is not a compelling reason.
Certainly an interesting topic for discussion.
RightKlik....I KIND of see your point...but it's not like the teacher jumped out of a closet and tied them up, you know? if they said "please don't", I'm sure she wouldn't have..?
Ya, I understand what you and David here are saying except isn't it pretty powerful for young kids to actually feel it and see how awful being bound IS? up close and personal, so to speak?
it is an interesting discussion, isn't it......I'm sure that, were I a teacher, it wouldn't have entered my mind.
I'm going to go to Law & Order Teacher's blog and see what he thinks...
The teacher, if she thought this really an important lesson, could have asked her class for volunteers.
If she picked the troublemakers in her class, she was asking for it.
It really doesn't teach them anything, most kids would think it was a lark.
Pris
I like mksviews take.
Today, you'd be out on a limb for putting duct tape over a kid's mouth, just as a kind of joke that the kid talks too much. Some parents would freak out; others would realize there was no harm, other than imagined harm and feigned outrage and perhaps a chance to sue.
i think it was a risky thing to do, especially given that you are touching someone else's child, no matter about skin color.
but like pris said, did she ask for volunteers? my first thought was, were the kids forced. of course i thought about my own daughters, none of whom would have cooperated. at this age, i don't agree with similation to teach this kind of lesson. college age, consenting adults, yes. adolescent minors, no.
Maria, I've been thinking about what you said about color and perhaps that's true....we should ALL feel affected by slavery. This probably doesn't apply more to a Black student because Blacks were slaves...slavery's wrong, whoever was enslaved.
The sad thing about "touching another's child" is we can't hug, either. It's almost like we have invisible barricades to human touch which I think is a terrible situation. Obviously hugging's quite different than tying someone up!
Ya, I think volunteers would have been the only solution. Even while NON-volunteers might have made a better candidate because real slaves didn't volunteer either! It's more painful, more frightening if you didn't...then, in that case, it should have been college kids. No..that's silly on my part; you can't make someone do anything they don't want to do; we are well DONE with SLAVERY!
Well, with 7th Graders I don't see a problem. But it depends on how the lesson was prefaced.
I wouldn't do such a thing without the student's consent and understanding of the demonstration.
Of course, technically, the teacher violated the never-touch-a-student rule. So, she's liable for disciplinary action.
z, i was once a teacher, myself. it IS a shame about not touching. of course, i touched my students. an ecouraging back pat and even a hug. kids LOVE that. but in this day and age, it's just better for all parties, legally, to keep hands to self.
in case i was misunderstood, this story really was not that serious. certainly doesn't warrant any talk about lawsuits or reprimanding a teacher.
Namaste, I'm with you.
But, as I added to my blog piece, I saw a video of the Mom of one of the girls and she says the child is 'traumatized', the mother is "not sure how she'll do in school the rest of the year" and that's probably spelling a lawsuit.
I'm thinking some lawyer will jump on it but cooler minds will prevail and it'll all go away. I'd have thought all the teacher has to do is apologize to the girl and assure her nothing like that would happen again and the girl ought to do just fine the rest of the school year.
Because slavery was all being bound hand and foot and turning the crank on a cotton gin with your teeth.
The whole idea was asinine and completely ill advised. I'm sorry this incident took place.
The teacher who instigated it was just plain STUPID for every conceivable reason.
Empathy is a mental and spiritual state best evoked by stimulating the IMAGINATION --- not by mortifying ANYONE'S body, however lightly and experimentally.
Besides it's MORBID and DESTRUCTIVE to dwell on the negative aspects of ANYTHING.
Evil is best overcome by embracing and doing GOOD unstintingly with joy, and gratitude.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
~ FreeThinke
Why didn't she tie up some white bread?
They probably needed the lesson more than the black kids.
Fire the teacher and sue the school district.
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