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Question for the inmates, weird assignment

angiebaby

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If the principal handles it, I see no reason to get the district admins involved. The goal is to have the daughter not have to participate in this particular script, right? Is the goal to get people fired? I'm sorry, but I don't think that's right. People make poor judgment calls at work all the time. If you say you never have, I'm sorry, but that dog don't hunt.

I had (what I thought was) a great lesson one time. Hell, I still think it's a great lesson. The kids learned about Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin. Then I was able to procure some raw cotton and the kids got to hand clean it, or at least attempt to. Those seeds really don't want to come out of the cotton. It showed how time consuming the hand cleaning was and, I played old hymnal-type songs (nothing too religious) while the kids were doing it. So they got to experience the challenging work it was for people, listen to music from the time period, it was an enjoyable day. The kids LOVED it.

One kid jumps in the car after school with his mom who asks, "What did you do at school today?" Kid replies, "I got to pick cotton!" Mom loses her shit. You can guess what tone of skin she had, I suppose. She calls me and proceeds to chew my ass, to which I was totally taken off guard, trying to explain the purpose of the lesson. She sets up a meeting with the principal and me, both mom and dad are there. Once I explained I was not trying to give them the "slave experience" and that we had read excerpts and watched some of the movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and students had read documents recorded by former slaves about their treatment (and learned that different owners treated their slaves differently, based on primary sources of slaves) and I was absolutely NOT glossing over the horrors of slavery, they calmed down. Slavery is a big part of the era, but so is economics, and using a machine to clean the cotton, meant that they could put those slaves out in the field and grow more cotton and get even more wealth and land.

Anyway, I'm really happy those parents just went to the principal and not to the district office. However, no other students of mine were able to have the same experience :(
 

4Waters

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If the principal handles it, I see no reason to get the district admins involved. The goal is to have the daughter not have to participate in this particular script, right? Is the goal to get people fired? I'm sorry, but I don't think that's right. People make poor judgment calls at work all the time. If you say you never have, I'm sorry, but that dog don't hunt.

I had (what I thought was) a great lesson one time. Hell, I still think it's a great lesson. The kids learned about Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin. Then I was able to procure some raw cotton and the kids got to hand clean it, or at least attempt to. Those seeds really don't want to come out of the cotton. It showed how time consuming the hand cleaning was and, I played old hymnal-type songs (nothing too religious) while the kids were doing it. So they got to experience the challenging work it was for people, listen to music from the time period, it was an enjoyable day. The kids LOVED it.

One kid jumps in the car after school with his mom who asks, "What did you do at school today?" Kid replies, "I got to pick cotton!" Mom loses her shit. You can guess what tone of skin she had, I suppose. She calls me and proceeds to chew my ass, to which I was totally taken off guard, trying to explain the purpose of the lesson. She sets up a meeting with the principal and me, both mom and dad are there. Once I explained I was not trying to give them the "slave experience" and that we had read excerpts and watched some of the movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and students had read documents recorded by former slaves about their treatment (and learned that different owners treated their slaves differently, based on primary sources of slaves) and I was absolutely NOT glossing over the horrors of slavery, they calmed down. Slavery is a big part of the era, but so is economics, and using a machine to clean the cotton, meant that they could put those slaves out in the field and grow more cotton and get even more wealth and land.

Anyway, I'm really happy those parents just went to the principal and not to the district office. However, no other students of mine were able to have the same experience :(
Using the chain of command as we should be, we definitely don't want to get anyone fired but the teacher needs to think a little more about what plays/scripts are being used.

Your assignment was awesome
 
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Wave Hi

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I would be curious to see if they would video this self-reflecting social disaster and let the families of the victims watch it to see their reaction of this artistic portrayal of the carnage they had to endure. We are doomed as a society if this shit continues.!!!
 

riverroyal

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While I don't disagree with Angie I don't have the compassion or patience for the teacher.
I just couldn't let it go. While it might be anonymous to keep my kid out of it.
If this was OK for a teacher I don't think they should teach at all.
This is not the first 'wrong' idea. There will also be more in the future.
A person such as this should not teach. They can be employed somewhere else in another profession.

I think I'm pretty confident I would be calling the news. Whistle blower ish.

But that's just my opinion. Angie's is valid.

Edit. The principal not knowing tells me this is not a one time bad idea. This one bad idea is from the teacher leading a classes all year every year.

Ok. Off my soap box
 

DC-88

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If the principal handles it, I see no reason to get the district admins involved. The goal is to have the daughter not have to participate in this particular script, right? Is the goal to get people fired? I'm sorry, but I don't think that's right. People make poor judgment calls at work all the time. If you say you never have, I'm sorry, but that dog don't hunt.

I had (what I thought was) a great lesson one time. Hell, I still think it's a great lesson. The kids learned about Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin. Then I was able to procure some raw cotton and the kids got to hand clean it, or at least attempt to. Those seeds really don't want to come out of the cotton. It showed how time consuming the hand cleaning was and, I played old hymnal-type songs (nothing too religious) while the kids were doing it. So they got to experience the challenging work it was for people, listen to music from the time period, it was an enjoyable day. The kids LOVED it.

One kid jumps in the car after school with his mom who asks, "What did you do at school today?" Kid replies, "I got to pick cotton!" Mom loses her shit. You can guess what tone of skin she had, I suppose. She calls me and proceeds to chew my ass, to which I was totally taken off guard, trying to explain the purpose of the lesson. She sets up a meeting with the principal and me, both mom and dad are there. Once I explained I was not trying to give them the "slave experience" and that we had read excerpts and watched some of the movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and students had read documents recorded by former slaves about their treatment (and learned that different owners treated their slaves differently, based on primary sources of slaves) and I was absolutely NOT glossing over the horrors of slavery, they calmed down. Slavery is a big part of the era, but so is economics, and using a machine to clean the cotton, meant that they could put those slaves out in the field and grow more cotton and get even more wealth and land.

Anyway, I'm really happy those parents just went to the principal and not to the district office. However, no other students of mine were able to have the same experience :(
@angiebaby Do you think there'd be a market for these type of storytelling lesson plans, or recorded paid tutorials? My wife is about to retire after 32 years of US history, some dual enrolled JC credit classes etc but she has tons of the exact same type of lesson plans she still does every year (civil War, Vietnam, WW2 and everything else you could think of). Kids come out of her classes knowing every make and model of airplane, weaponry, and cool ways to remember tons of stuff. We can't even go out to eat or shop without people running up to her with ages varying from 16-49 telling her she was the best teacher ever, influenced them positively, etc . We have ran into them at gas stations out in the middle of the country , and airport hubs like Dallas. During covid I watched some of her zoom stuff and it got me thinking. She is 100% anti chrome book, 100% old school, and from what she's seen when home schooled kids show up in high school she hasn't reported seeing much success with that either but the lack of socialization could play a part there. We started following this you tube workout gal and doing her workouts 5 days a week in 2020 when she had maybe 7K followers . This gal made an app and now we pay like 90 bucks a year along with thousands and thousands of others. It sure seems to me something could be made with these storytelling type lectures that could be utilized en masse but my wife isn't convinced. She won't set foot in a classroom as an employee ever again after Memorial Day. I just know she's a wealth of resources when it comes to the transfer of info and it sounds like you are/ were as well. We don't live in LA so she's never had any parent issues, and her district wouldn't tolerate weird shit from a teacher like the topic of this thread . It just seems like with how screwed up education is there could be a market for the old school approach .
 

angiebaby

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The event I described occurred in Reno, not LA, but there is always a risk of a crazy parent these days since principals and the district often roll over because they fear a lawsuit, in which they would just settle and never take to court, even though they have paid attorneys on staff.

I think there may be a market, and there really isn't any cost to make the curriculum and videos (I've considered it myself), but there is also a lot of free stuff out there, or inexpensive, for homeschoolers to use. Again, there is no harm in developing it and putting it out there. My issue is that I don't feel I have the personality for videos. It doesn't matter how interesting the content is if the delivery isn't entertaining. That being said, the amount of folks wanting to homeschool is increasing daily and many of those people are looking for the "old school" ways of instruction without all of the modern b.s.
 

MooreMoney

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First you go talk to the principle. if the priciple doesnt do anything you start calling new stations until one of them runes a story on it.
 

jpf091959

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what a horrible assignment.

Try O="Open AI Chat GPT" just plug in some parameters, Columbine school shooting, progressive art theater, no weapons and see what you get.
 
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