Teacher sorry for binding girls in slavery lesson

AreaCode7O7

Senior member
Mar 6, 2005
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I did search, both using search and CTRL+F, on teacher, binding, bound, student.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28075402/?gt1=43001
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A white social studies teacher attempted to enliven a seventh-grade discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls, prompting outrage from one girl's mother and the local chapter of the NAACP.

After the mother complained to Haverstraw Middle School, the superintendent said he was having "conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons."

"If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea," said Superintendent Brian Monahan of the North Rockland School District in New York City's northern suburbs.

The teacher apologized to the mother who complained and her 13-year-old daughter during a meeting Thursday that also included a representative of the local NAACP. But the mother, Christine Shand of Haverstraw, said Friday she thinks the teacher should be removed from the class.

"I think the teacher should have gotten some discipline," Shand said. "I know if that was me, I would be uncomfortable going back to that class. Why should my daughter have to switch?"

Monahan refused to say what, if any, measures were taken against the teacher, Eileen Bernstein, who was still working on Friday. The school district said she was not available for comment.

"We encourage our teachers to deliver the curriculum in a variety of ways, to go beyond just reading the textbook," the superintendent said. "We don't want to discourage creativity. But this obviously went wrong because the student was upset."

On Nov. 18, Bernstein was discussing the conditions under which African captives were taken to America in slave ships. She bound the two students' hands and feet with tape and had them crawl under a desk to simulate the experience, Monahan and Shand said. Monahan said the girls were not the only blacks in the class.

Gabrielle Shand burst into tears at home, her mother said.

"There are other ways to demonstrate slavery," Christine Shand said Friday. "It doesn't matter the color of the kids, it's just not right to tie them up. My daughter is still upset, still embarrassed. She didn't go to school today."

Wilbur Aldridge, director of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the history demonstration, first reported in The Journal News, "went wrong when she started to do that binding."

"I don't care what color, no one should be put in the position of having their hands and feet bound," he said.

Aldridge said he feared that the teacher still "didn't get it" after their meeting. He said the teacher apologized "because Gabrielle was upset, not because she admitted she did something wrong."

Shand said she had not decided whether to take any further action, including filing a lawsuit.

I dunno. I could see this being a safety consideration but aside from that... I think the teacher should have asked for student volunteers after disclosing what she was doing, so that she was sure to have people comfortable with the lesson, but I don't really see anything wrong with the activity itself.

They were discussing a particular point in history, a particular experience of a people, and she wanted to help them understand that a little better than your average bored high school kid would. As long as the teacher ensures that next time participation will be 100% voluntary and apologizes that it wasn't that way this time, I think there shouldn't be a problem. I also have a hard time believing that if the student expressed discomfort that the teacher wouldn't have immediately chosen someone else.
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
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I agree with the OP. Sounded like it could have been done right, but it was not. If this explodes into something huge I'm going to be disappointed.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
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Absolutely idiotic. Does that teacher have no common sense?

Also, the article was written with a very biased slant: "white teacher" "black students"
For all we know, EVERY student in the class was black. What's the class make-up? Are these the only two black girls in the class? (I doubt it - no teacher could possibly be THAT stupid.) Even the mother made the comment that it doesn't matter what the color is of the kids - to me it sounds like she's not accusing the teacher of singling out her own child because of her color.

Nonetheless, things you don't do as a teacher:
Put yourself in a position to be the only person in the room with a single student & the door to the room is closed.
Put yourself in a position to be the only person in the room with 2 or 3 students of the opposite sex, and the door closed.
Sit next to students of the opposite sex when they're the only student in the room - even when the door is open (sit on the opposite side of the desk.)

And, just as importantly, you don't tie students up, tape their mouths shut, etc.
 

AreaCode7O7

Senior member
Mar 6, 2005
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Originally posted by: DrPizza
Absolutely idiotic. Does that teacher have no common sense?

Also, the article was written with a very biased slant: "white teacher" "black students"
For all we know, EVERY student in the class was black. What's the class make-up? Are these the only two black girls in the class? (I doubt it - no teacher could possibly be THAT stupid.) Even the mother made the comment that it doesn't matter what the color is of the kids - to me it sounds like she's not accusing the teacher of singling out her own child because of her color.

Nonetheless, things you don't do as a teacher:
Put yourself in a position to be the only person in the room with a single student & the door to the room is closed.
Put yourself in a position to be the only person in the room with 2 or 3 students of the opposite sex, and the door closed.
Sit next to students of the opposite sex when they're the only student in the room - even when the door is open (sit on the opposite side of the desk.)

And, just as importantly, you don't tie students up, tape their mouths shut, etc.

It says the two students weren't the only black kids in the class.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
65,238
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Originally posted by: DrPizza
Absolutely idiotic. Does that teacher have no common sense?

And, just as importantly, you don't tie students up, tape their mouths shut, etc.

That'd be TOO easy wouldn't it Doc? :D
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
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www.slatebrookfarm.com
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Absolutely idiotic. Does that teacher have no common sense?

And, just as importantly, you don't tie students up, tape their mouths shut, etc.

That'd be TOO easy wouldn't it Doc? :D

You don't know how many times I'd love to just be able to slap a piece of duct tape over someone's mouth.
 

DayLaPaul

Platinum Member
Apr 6, 2001
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I think the most important thing is how good of a teacher is this guy? If he is a good teacher, something like this could and should be easily overlooked. He was illustrating a message and I'm sure the girls were never in harms way.

When I was in middle school, I had a cool ass history teacher who was also very hands on with his teaching. He would often take our class out to the quad to give us a more lively demonstration of history in action. One of the times I remember him having us all bow east to Mecca. I objected to this, since I was not Muslim, but he basically put me in check and said just do the damn thing, it's only a lesson. Never did I think about turning him in to the principal or ratting him out in any way. He was a very good teacher and I think the class loved being able to actually leave the classroom on these mini field trips.
 

Freshgeardude

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2006
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when I learned about the black slave trade in 7th grade, our teach made a day where we would be like " slaves on a ship" where we were tied with eachother and in "terrible conditions(lied on the floor). it was more of a learning thing than anything else. she just showed us. and also sprinkled water on us. id say that it wasnt bad. she does it every year and not one parent complained
 

CKent

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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Originally posted by: MotF Bane
Originally posted by: amdhunter
I wonder how long until the lawsuit over this?

However long it takes a lawyer to reach them on the phone
Fixed. You people are quick to blame the people filing silly lawsuits when it's usually the lawyers, who are all soulless societal parasites, that talk them into it for their own benefit.

And no, this isn't even remotely OK. Bizarre seeing it in Westchester county.
 

Farang

Lifer
Jul 7, 2003
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Originally posted by: freshgeardude
when I learned about the black slave trade in 7th grade, our teach made a day where we would be like " slaves on a ship" where we were tied with eachother and in "terrible conditions(lied on the floor). it was more of a learning thing than anything else. she just showed us. and also sprinkled water on us. id say that it wasnt bad. she does it every year and not one parent complained

I think the mistake made here was selecting black students, had there been other ethnic groups available. You can have one black kid and one white kid, but to make them both black and you're on shaky ground like this teacher is now. I don't think she was being malicious so hopefully this blows over and she learns her lesson through the fuss it created.
 

Xylitol

Diamond Member
Aug 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: frostedflakes
How could the teacher have thought this was a good idea?

if people didn't assume that others' were racists because of things like this, it would've been a great lesson and would've made me understand the concept better if I were in 7th grade right now.

I do think that he was being an idiot by choosing 2 black girls. If he had chosen a black and an asian, or a black and a white, or 2 white girls, etc., he would've been fine.
 

Kreon

Golden Member
Oct 22, 2006
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Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
I think the most important thing is how good of a teacher is this guy? If he is a good teacher, something like this could and should be easily overlooked. He was illustrating a message and I'm sure the girls were never in harms way.

When I was in middle school, I had a cool ass history teacher who was also very hands on with his teaching. He would often take our class out to the quad to give us a more lively demonstration of history in action. One of the times I remember him having us all bow east to Mecca. I objected to this, since I was not Muslim, but he basically put me in check and said just do the damn thing, it's only a lesson. Never did I think about turning him in to the principal or ratting him out in any way. He was a very good teacher and I think the class loved being able to actually leave the classroom on these mini field trips.

I had a teacher like this too

Nobody ever complained. We did all sorts of things like this. I remember "storming the Bastille" one day, when we ran into the adjacent classroom demanding they surrender all their munitions to us. They were not informed beforehand. So funny.

That class and teacher were by far one of the best Social Studies experiences I've ever had
 

dbk

Lifer
Apr 23, 2004
17,685
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<facepalm> Doesn't matter if the girls were black, white, asian, latino, etc. It adds nothing to the discussion.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
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Eh... meh. I mean, it's not really something that needs to be demonstrated in order to teach, so it was a waste of time. But I don't think there was anything really wrong with what he did.

When I was in 6th grade, our social studies teacher demonstrated a ritual human sacrifice, and it involved a male student with his shirt off, and his chest was drawn on with markers. :Q No big deal. I don't remember the point of the markers though. :confused:
 

jagec

Lifer
Apr 30, 2004
24,442
6
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Originally posted by: DrPizza
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Absolutely idiotic. Does that teacher have no common sense?

And, just as importantly, you don't tie students up, tape their mouths shut, etc.

That'd be TOO easy wouldn't it Doc? :D

You don't know how many times I'd love to just be able to slap a piece of duct tape over someone's mouth.

Happened in my school, after several warnings. It was an effective lesson, didn't last long, and no one got upset about it. But that was then and there, and this is now and here.

The teacher in the OP obviously didn't mean anything too negative by it, but she probably should have realized that people were going to overreact.

The media makes it sounds like she was whipping them while laughing sadistically. "Oh noes, they'll be scarred for life!" Give me a break. Get a thicker skin.
 

JS80

Lifer
Oct 24, 2005
26,271
7
81
So how is being bound down = slavery? Would have been more effective if he forced the whole class to weave sweaters for him to sell on ebay.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: JS80
So how is being bound down = slavery? Would have been more effective if he forced the whole class to weave sweaters for him to sell on ebay.

On Nov. 18, Bernstein was discussing the conditions under which African captives were taken to America in slave ships. She bound the two students' hands and feet with tape and had them crawl under a desk to simulate the experience, Monahan and Shand said.

Dumbass.
 

frostedflakes

Diamond Member
Mar 1, 2005
7,925
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Originally posted by: Xylitol
Originally posted by: frostedflakes
How could the teacher have thought this was a good idea?

if people didn't assume that others' were racists because of things like this, it would've been a great lesson and would've made me understand the concept better if I were in 7th grade right now.

I do think that he was being an idiot by choosing 2 black girls. If he had chosen a black and an asian, or a black and a white, or 2 white girls, etc., he would've been fine.
Even if it wasn't a race thing, it just doesn't seem appropriate. I don't think it really adds anything meaningful to the discussion to demonstrate how slaves were treated in that time. Kind of like having kids crawl into some of the school ovens when they're talking about the holocaust to simulate the experiences of the Jews... just doesn't seem PC to me. I'm sure she just wanted to keep the kids engaged by getting them up and moving around, but this was a stupid way of doing it IMO.

And yeah, choosing two black children for this demonstration was beyond stupid, she should have anticipated the controversy it would cause.