My Black History lesson is being Whitewashed. So that there are no aspects “where students are made to feel uncomfortable”.
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UPDATE:
Here’s my response to the latest part of my lesson that has been denied approval. Can my peeps please read this and tell me if there are any typos or egregious grammatical errors? Also, what is your opinion? I have to send this in by 11am:
Hello Again
Can you please explain what the issues and problems with the board game are? You told me the problem with the simulation was children and adults playing roles that model racist behaviors. No person is acting out, or modeling, racist behaviors as part of the board game. The children play the game just like any traditional board game: they are rolling a die, moving a piece, and following rules. The content of the spaces and the cards is not different than the content of books they learn from. I don’t see how it is a problem to learn about some of what happened during slavery and the efforts to help slaves escape to freedom. The children are not witnessing nor experiencing anything disturbing. It is all words on paper, presented in a way meant to engage children so they actually learn, and not just read and forget. To not teach at all what happened in our history is to erase it, as if it didn’t matter, or worse, to imply it was okay that it happened and so not worth mentioning.
Sincerely,
Jennifer German