Imagine this:
You come home after a long day at work to have dinner with your children. Your daughter begins telling you about her day at school. When she gets to the subject of recess, she describes a 'game' that she played with her fellow students.
"It was kind of like tag, but we were slaves and slave catchers," she reports.
If only this were a fictional dinner table conversation.
Parents of students at Camp Creek Elementary have forced the school district to launch an investigation as to why this 'slave catcher' game was played at their children's elementary school. [I wonder if those involved were inspired by this math teacher?]
According to school spokesman Jorge Quintana, the game was organized by the students and no teacher involvement took place. "The district determined that the activity was student-initiated and that the allegations regarding the teacher's involvement were unfounded," said Quintana.
However, according to some students, a teacher took an active role in organizing the 'game', serving as 'safehouse' and telling the designated 'slaves' and 'slave catchers' when to run. One student said that the teacher proposed the game in order to complement what the students had been learning in their Social Studies class. [Who wants to bet money that the students were were designated as 'slaves' were Black and the 'slave catchers' were not?]
Despite the findings of the district, the school board is nonetheless planning a 'diversity training' for the area teachers.
Is diversity training the solution to this problem? As someone who has participated in several required diversity trainings, the results are always what is expected: those who lack bigoted tendencies find the experience somewhat enjoyable while their not-so-tolerant counterparts moan and complain. I really wonder whether an educated person, such as a teacher, should already know that a 'game' like this in NOT a game.
Not to mention - what do people like this teach students when they are not under the watchful eye of administrators?
