A Lost Teachable Moment

Recently a teacher took a lot of flak for the way in which students were taught about slavery. It seems the teacher chose two students, tied their arms and legs and had them spend a few minutes under a desk as a way to demonstrate how slaves were brought from Africa to the new world.

It seems the students didn't like being bound and tied.

Ya think?

Unfortunately, as I said, the teacher took a lot of flak.

IMHO, everybody (except maybe the teacher) missed the mark on just what a teachable moment this was. Somebody should have quietly told those kids and the rest of the class that the slaves didn't like it, either. And there weren't just a couple of slaves in the hold of the ship - there were hundreds. And the air was bad. The trip lasted a whole lot longer than a few minutes, and there were no potty breaks - use your imagination.

Furthermore the slaves had no mommy to complain to about the wrongs being done to them.

Let that sink into the kids' heads for awhile. Maybe they would develop a deeper and more meaningful understanding of what the slaves went through and how degradingly awful it must have been for them.

Yup - somebody missed the mark on this one, but it was NOT the teacher.