Teacher in trouble for "Underground Railroad" game in 5th grade class

[Divine Wind]

This morning the news related how a 5th Grade teacher at Cheatham Hill elementary is in trouble for using a game about the Underground railroad to teach her students history. I wrote an email to the Principal, school secretary , all the 5th grade and gifted students teachers.

An article about the class: Teacher comes under fire for playing Underground Railroad game

A ten-year-old African American elementary school student in Georgia was left traumatized after her teacher made her class play an Underground Railroad game.

Delores Bunch-Keemer said her granddaughter came home distraught after playing the game at school.

Bunch-Keemer's granddaughter is the only African American student in the class and told her she during the game she was 'sent back to the Plantation six times'.

'When going back to the plantation her teacher said they would be beaten cause they didn't like their work,' Bunch-Keemer told WSBTV.

The rules of the game involve the students getting a sheet of paper with numbers corresponding to actions.

When they roll a dice, they learn their fate, such as escaping into the woods, being freed or going back to a plantation.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...class-plantation-SIX-times.html#ixzz4Ij9w0Oyu

The school website: cheathamhillelem

cheathamhillelem

cheathamhillelem


My email:
George Santayana once wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress) Teaching kids history is difficult, at best. I didn't fully appreciate it myself until an adult when working on my International Relations MS degree. To convey knowledge of human history requires innovation.

Please support the teacher who innovated the Underground Railroad game. It's okay to adjust or alter a program to become more effective, but please don't condemn a teacher who was honestly doing their best to help students understand our history.

I fully support this teacher's innovations and hope your school continues to appreciate both the teacher and Santayana's quote.

Respectfully,
Jxxxx xxxxxxxx
Commander USN (ret)
817-xxx-xxxx

 

[Dekster]

So a black child did not win the game in her eyes so it is racism is what this amounts to. Perhaps the teacher could have better structured this so it did not seem like a game to be won or lost. Not sure. My teachers were so poor at explaining the whole underground railroad thing that for the first few years after I heard the phrase, I thought they had some kind of tunnels with trains in them. Not kidding about that. I had many questions like how did the white people not hear the train?; did the trains shake people's houses as it went under them? etc. Took a long time to figure out there weren't any trains involved at all really.

 

[Divine Wind]

So a black child did not win the game in her eyes so it is racism is what this amounts to. Perhaps the teacher could have better structured this so it did not seem like a game to be won or lost. Not sure. My teachers were so poor at explaining the whole underground railroad thing that for the first few years after I heard the phrase, I thought they had some kind of tunnels with trains in them. Not kidding about that. I had many questions like how did the white people not hear the train?; did the trains shake people's houses as it went under them? etc. Took a long time to figure out there weren't any trains involved at all really.

If we want our teachers to be "color blind", then we should expect them to treat all students the same, not tiptoe around one because of their race, heritage or other factors.

 

[Dekster]

So a black child did not win the game in her eyes so it is racism is what this amounts to. Perhaps the teacher could have better structured this so it did not seem like a game to be won or lost. Not sure. My teachers were so poor at explaining the whole underground railroad thing that for the first few years after I heard the phrase, I thought they had some kind of tunnels with trains in them. Not kidding about that. I had many questions like how did the white people not hear the train?; did the trains shake people's houses as it went under them? etc. Took a long time to figure out there weren't any trains involved at all really.

If we want our teachers to be "color blind", then we should expect them to treat all students the same, not tiptoe around one because of their race, heritage or other factors.

The issue here really is that by turning it into a game of some sort, kids want to win and not lose. It starts to dilute the educational value when it fails to adequately instruct the students on what is being illustrated. The girl just defaulted to the I am a victim because of my race rationalization, but the fundamental problem seems to reside in how the activity was structured. I had a full on bitch hissy fit in third grade because every week when we colored the teacher would post some students' work on an art bulletin board and by the end of the year, mine had never been posted and mine was a hell of a lot better than many of the ones she had posted over the year. I confronted her about it when she said it was the last time they were posting on the board and mine didn't make it yet again. To her, it was about encouraging students who needed extra encouragement. To me it was about winning.

 

[martybegan]

So a black child did not win the game in her eyes so it is racism is what this amounts to. Perhaps the teacher could have better structured this so it did not seem like a game to be won or lost. Not sure. My teachers were so poor at explaining the whole underground railroad thing that for the first few years after I heard the phrase, I thought they had some kind of tunnels with trains in them. Not kidding about that. I had many questions like how did the white people not hear the train?; did the trains shake people's houses as it went under them? etc. Took a long time to figure out there weren't any trains involved at all really.

If we want our teachers to be "color blind", then we should expect them to treat all students the same, not tiptoe around one because of their race, heritage or other factors.

The old adage "you can please some people all of the time or all people some of the time, but you cannot please all people all of the time" has had an addendum added to it. "if you don't please certain groups of people, you will be castigated and rode of out town on a rail".

 

[Divine Wind]

The old adage "you can please some people all of the time or all people some of the time, but you cannot please all people all of the time" has had an addendum added to it. "if you don't please certain groups of people, you will be castigated and rode of out town on a rail".

Unfortunately true.

 

[Divine Wind]

The issue here really is that by turning it into a game of some sort, kids want to win and not lose. It starts to dilute the educational value when it fails to adequately instruct the students on what is being illustrated. The girl just defaulted to the I am a victim because of my race rationalization, but the fundamental problem seems to reside in how the activity was structured. I had a full on bitch hissy fit in third grade because every week when we colored the teacher would post some students' work on an art bulletin board and by the end of the year, mine had never been posted and mine was a hell of a lot better than many of the ones she had posted over the year. I confronted her about it when she said it was the last time they were posting on the board and mine didn't make it yet again. To her, it was about encouraging students who needed extra encouragement. To me it was about winning.

Teachers shouldn't teach only to the lowest common denominator. It's unfair to normal students. That's why the OP elementary school has a Special Ed section.

 

[Dekster]

The issue here really is that by turning it into a game of some sort, kids want to win and not lose. It starts to dilute the educational value when it fails to adequately instruct the students on what is being illustrated. The girl just defaulted to the I am a victim because of my race rationalization, but the fundamental problem seems to reside in how the activity was structured. I had a full on bitch hissy fit in third grade because every week when we colored the teacher would post some students' work on an art bulletin board and by the end of the year, mine had never been posted and mine was a hell of a lot better than many of the ones she had posted over the year. I confronted her about it when she said it was the last time they were posting on the board and mine didn't make it yet again. To her, it was about encouraging students who needed extra encouragement. To me it was about winning.

Teachers shouldn't teach only to the lowest common denominator. It's unfair to normal students. That's why the OP elementary school has a Special Ed section.

They shouldn't but they do. It is more important to a school that the slobbering kid looks like he has learned something than it is for the smart kid to have learned anything. Our city school system consolidated the best and worst performing elementary schools for fear they would lose funding having one of the worst elementary schools in the state without regard for what that will mean for the students from the better performing school to be flooded with cracktown kids.

 

[Divine Wind]

They shouldn't but they do. It is more important to a school that the slobbering kid looks like he has learned something than it is for the smart kid to have learned anything. Our city school system consolidated the best and worst performing elementary schools for fear they would lose funding having one of the worst elementary schools in the state without regard for what that will mean for the students from the better performing school to be flooded with cracktown kids.

An unfortunate consequence of "do-gooders" in Washington, DC from forced busing to No Child Left Behind.

While it's good to help maximize the potential of all American kids, causing harm to more talented kids is wrong.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

I wonder what would have happened if the child had refused to play the game.

God bless you and them always!!!

Holly

 

[Divine Wind]

I wonder what would have happened if the child had refused to play the game.

God bless you and them always!!!

Holly

Good question. I don't know.