A slave auction was acted out in a kindergarten class by kids in Alabama, Opposing Views reports Feb.21. Jamelle Young said her five-year-old son came home telling her that his class put on a pretend slave auction, but he didn't want get on a table that served as the auction block.
“He said he didn’t want to get on the table at the auction block,” Young said. “And how are you supposed to feel when your five-year-old says he didn’t want to get auctioned off?”
Young went on to say that it was the "fair skinned" students who acted as slave masters. The teacher who instructs the class at MacMillan International Academy in Montgomery allegedly told her kindergarten students to go home and have a discussion with their parents over whether they'd ever go back to slavery.
The slave auction was inspired by lessons the children were learning about Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and other women part of the slavery-era.
An email by the school principal sent to Young explained that to some degree slavery is taught in school. A slave auction was a new one -- with some of the children singled out to get on a desk as a makeshift auction block.
The school district is investigating the highly controversial teaching method.
Would there be any point in a teacher considering such an extreme history lesson with young children? Reenactment isn't always the best way to teach kids -- especially something like a mock-slave auction. It's easy to see how this could potentially leave some of the kids traumatized being taught something like this in such a demeaning way.
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