White Teacher Binds The Hands & Feet Of Two Black Students During A Lesson On Slavery!

There are all kinds of children's books that show the tools that were implemented to bind slaves during the slavery era. Why would this white woman find it necessary to have her students act this out in her class? Couldn't she just have shown them "Roots"? How insensitive to think that this would be an appropriate way to demonstrate what slaves went through! I mean, these are probably the actual descendants of slaves! You can't imagine the pain that many people feel even discussing slavery. It is a very,very sensitive issue. I think this teacher needs racial sensitivity classes because she does not recognize the error in her method of teaching. Here's more from The NY Daily News:

"A suburban middle school teacher who bound the hands and feet of two black girls, then made them crawl under desks representing slave ships, has sparked outrage by one of the girl's mother and the local NAACP chapter.

While one student volunteered for the Nov. 18 lesson on slavery in America, seventh-grader Gabrielle Shand, 13, did not.

When she got home that day, her mother Christine Shand, 41, said her daughter burst into tears.

"My daughter didn't volunteer for this. My daughter was embarrassed. She's extremely uncomfortable," Shand said.

Eileen Bernstein, social studies teacher at the Haverstraw Middle School in Rockland County, and the school's principal and superintendent have apologized to the girl and her mother, but Shand believes they are upset about her daughter's reaction, not with the lesson itself.

Bernstein, who is white, said that she had done the lesson before, Shand said.

"Are you telling me when you do a section on the Holocaust, it's okay to simulate an oven and have a grandchild of someone who was a survivor just get in the oven?" asked Wilbur Aldridge, head of the local NAACP chapter. "That makes so sense."Northern Rockland School District Superintendent Brian Monahan said he was having "conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons."

"We encourage our teachers to deliver the curriculum in a variety of ways, to go beyond just reading the textbook," he said. "But this obviously went wrong because the student was upset."

Monahan refused to say what, if any, measures were taken against Bernstein, but she was still working today. The school district said Bernstein was not available for comment."(END OF EXCERPT) Read the whole article here:http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/12/05/2008-12-05_new_york_teacher_binds_black_students_du.html