Story via Channel 7 in Boston, Originally written by Nick Emmons can be found here:
http://www.whdh.com/story/27382210/brookline-parents-upset-at-slavery-portion-of-textbook?hpt=us_bn7
Brookline, Massachusetts middle school parents are enraged about their 5th graders history book depiction of slavery. "Being taught slavery wasn't bad for all". When you have to get into good slaves and bad slaves, the entire point is missed. The school district sent a letter saying the book will no longer be used as it is out of date, offensive and inaccurate.
My personal take on this is excitement that the school responded the way they did and the parents didn't let the issue rest.
Honestly I don't know that problem is that the book is out of date, many school books say similarly horrific things. Like in our own book it said being free in the north was as bad as being a slave, I know it was easy but at least you had autonomy and weren't treated like cattle.
ReplyDeleteThis is a big issue, a lot of kids don't learn the correct things from the textbooks because they're so biased; if it weren't for my history teacher I would not know many important things about slavery!
ReplyDeleteIt's so strange, because perceptions change dramatically over time, and the view on the severity of slavery has morphed as more and more liberal views surface. Although I'm sure that the authors of such a text are not varying in opinion too much from our own, yet I feel as though saying any kind of relatively supportive or non-negative comment about slavery brings a flood of rebuffs from all, not excluding myself. Hopefully better formulated and more up-to-date general views and information will be compiled in new textbooks for students all around.
ReplyDelete- Sophia Davison