In Gahanna Ohio at Chapelfield Elementary School a fifth grader was made to play the part of a slave. The boys name is Nikko Burton he is an African American. For history class the teacher makes the children play parts of slaves or masters to understand that part of American History. Nikko said “at first it didn’t bother me, but then I had to call the other kids master, and they were feeling my legs and looking at my teeth to see if I was healthy. It made me feel bad and angry.” Yes Nikko was made to act like a slave. The other children bided on him and checked his health to see if he would make a good slave. This poor child! When I saw this story on the news I was shocked. No one should be made to feel like that. We don’t live in that day anymore. I just don’t understand the teacher’s way of thinking on this. What did the kids learn from this? I don’t think they learned anything that would benefit them from this lesson. When I was in high school and we were learning about World War II we were made to be Nazi’s or Jews. Then the next day it would be switched. This exercise was made to be a fun part of our assignments. When I was a Jew I had to take the Nazi’s trays at lunch. Then the next day they took mine, this lesson was harmless. It didn’t make me feel bad or anything like that. I could never dream any of my teachers making me pretend to be a slave or a master, and carrying it to the extent that this teacher did. This is something that should be read about not acted out. The only thing the Burton family wants from the school district is an apology. The school system did apologize to the family, but the teacher has not yet said sorry to Nikko. I think the school district should just be happy they aren’t getting sued!
I recieved all my information from
http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2011/03/03/story-gahanna-elementary-school-mock-slave-auction.html
If I were a parent of this kid I would be so ticked. That is crazy! It would be one thing if they were allowed to swap roles the next day. But once they started bidding on the boy and looking at him to see if he was healthy is where I think that they crossed the line in the end. I hate to see these kind of things happen in our society today.
ReplyDeleteThis shows us that the world we think we live in is far from it. Racism is still a part of our world no matter how we want to hide it or think that is has totally gone away. I am so surprised that the principal did not know that this was going on he or she should have stopped it.
ReplyDelete"Are we not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer?." ~The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
I have to say that if this happened to my kid or any member of my family, then i would be outraged. The teacher in my opinion was not teaching a history lesson but was teaching a bullying lesson. I believe that this should not be forgotten but should be taught in a different manner. Try going to a Civil War site or something
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad story and its sad that racism is still in this world. But in my opinion racism will never go away. I also agree that the teacher was very unresponsible to the children and needs to be fired.
ReplyDeleteYes this was taken way to far I can't believe he was made to play a slave. The world is filled with so much undercover racism its a shame, and the sad thing is that it's never going to change. This teacher needs to be fired and loss her teachers license so that she will never be able to teach again.
ReplyDelete