In my class today, we were discussing the passage from Beloved in which Beloved tells Denverthat she came from a dark place that was hot and full of people. Mr. Heidkamp commented that this passage reminded him of the conditions on a ship transporting African slaves through the Middle Passage.
Mr. Heidkamp’s comment reminded me of this news story that I saw on Yahoo News about what a social studies teacher in White Plains, NY, did during a class discussion recently. "On Nov. 18, [the teacher Eileen] Bernstein was discussing the conditions under which African captives were taken to America in slave ships. She bound...two students' hands and feet with tape and had them crawl under a desk to simulate the experience," according to the superintendent of the school’s district and the mother of one of the students. This demonstration greatly traumatized the two students. The teacher did apologize, but some, including the local NAACP chapter, believe that the teacher should be removed from the class.
This demonstration does seem a little extreme, and I would certainly agree with those who wish that the teacher had used a different method to demonstrate the conditions. This incident reminds me of the incident featured in "The Eye of the Storm", about the Iowa teacher who purposefully simulated discrimination in the classroom to teach her students about how wrong it was. I think that considering other options should especially apply when it comes to discussing the Middle Passage, because the level of brutality involved in it certainly makes it difficult to discuss, let alone demonstrate.
See what you think. The article is at the following website: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/ap_on_re_us/slave_lesson
Please Note: This may not really mean anything, but for those of you whom it might affect, I just wanted to make you aware of this: If for any reason you wish to access this article a few weeks or even a couple of months from now, this story may no longer appear on Yahoo News. Several times I've bookmarked articles and tried to go back to them months later, only to find that they've been removed.
If you would like a copy of this article, I have one available. Just let me know, and I can send it to you.
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