Monday, November 15, 2010
Father Sues School Over Slavery Reading
A Sterling Heights, MI (Detroit suburb) elementary school has been sued by the father of a fifth-grader claiming that the reading of a book on black slavery during Black History Month has caused his daughter harm and specifically alleges that the reading "affected the conditions of learning duties and the advantages of her further education, and seriously affected her mental and emotional well-being, past, present and future." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/father-sues-detroit-district-over-slavery-reading_n_782174.html. Passages from the book, Julius Lester's "From Slave Ship to Freedom Road", were read and a "positive" discussion was held afterwards. What is interesting about this lawsuit is that the father did not contact the school with his objections until three months after the passages were read. Does anyone believe that the child was truly damaged or that the father is looking for an easy payday? Has he ever had an intelligent discussion with his daughter about the horrors of slavery and other atrocities of world history? If the reading was so disturbing, how come no other complaints have come forward? Teachers, please let me know your thoughts.
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Thanks, Paula, for sharing. I am astounded that any parent would be opposed to such detrimential pieces of our history. I would love to go into the home of this young child to see what kinds of telelvision she is allowed to watch, the type of video games and Internet sites she is allowed to go to. It would just be interesting to see and compare them to the passages that were read in class.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it's stories such as these that make me way too cautious on the content and question everything I share with my students...almost to a fault! Valuable lessons in life (including right or incredibly wrong instances in history) can be taught to our students through these stories.
ReplyDeleteIt takes me back to last year when I was teaching my 4th graders about Greek Mythology. The parent volunteer in the room at the time was very upset that I was teaching about a religion that was not Christianity. Despite the fact that I was teaching about the format of the stories rather than preaching what my students "should" believe.
Paula, thanks for the article, but now I am fired up! This is ridiculous! Instead of spending time on this nonsense, I would challenge the dad to come volunteer in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteAs stated in the previous post, the poor child is probably allowed to view material at home which is questionable. Stop using these kids for a quick buck.
I love history. Yes, I still cringe when I read or hear past stories of slavery, but it is apart of our history. Instead of turning away from it, we need to use it to educate our students. This is ridiculous!