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Teacher Binds Students in Lesson on Slavery

Cara

A white teacher taped together the hands and feet of two 13-year-old black female students and then ordered them to climb underneath a desk as a “demonstration” while she taught a lesson on slavery. At least one of the two girls did not volunteer for the demonstration, cried during it, and was deeply traumatized by the experience.  The teacher still has her job, and even better commentators are referring to Eileen Bernstein’s actions as “misguided” rather than racist and abusive.

Christine Shand says it was a terrible experience for her daughter, Gaby, descended, like most Jamaicans, from slaves.

“She burst into tears, she was crying and she was horrified,” Shand told CBS 2 HD.

In a social studies class at Haverstraw Middle School, teacher Eileen Bernstein chose Gaby and another girl for a demonstration of conditions on ships that carried slaves out of Africa.

One African-American student raised her hand to volunteer for the demonstration. Gaby did not volunteer, but was chosen anyway.

“She taped their hands together, taped their feet together, and she had them crawl under the desk as if they were on a slave ship,” her mother told CBS 2.

Mrs. Shand said Gaby was traumatized. She questions the teacher’s judgment.

“There are other ways to demonstrate slavery. There’s movies, you don’t actually have to grab two kids and like put shackles on them,” she said.

Wilbur Aldridge, the regional NAACP director, went with the Shands Thursday to meet Bernstein.

“She said she apologized for causing any problems for the child, but she was not apologizing for using that simulation during the class,” Aldridge said.

But Principal Avis Shelby apologized, calling the slave ship demonstration a “bad decision.”

“And we have things in place to make sure it doesn’t occur again,” Shelby added.

Actually, it was a little bit more than a “bad decision.”  It was a horrible thing to do to a child, and saying “but oh, I was teaching about slavery so of course I had to use black students” doesn’t excuse the racism.  There’s a reason that Bernstein felt that it was perfectly okay to bind those students and humiliate and traumatize them in front of their peers.  There’s a reason that she’s not sorry.  And there’s a reason why she still has her job.

Worse, the impression is given that Gaby will remain in the classroom with Bernstein.  Of course, with Bernstein still in a job and no statement on whether or not she has even been reprimanded, the other option is to remove Gaby from the classroom as though she is the one who has done something wrong here.  Nice situation.

School is supposed to be as safe a place as possible for students.  And teachers are the last people who should ever make students feel unsafe in a place where they are supposed to be learning.

Renee has a really excellent post on the matter. Go check it out.  She also shares the contact details of the school’s principle, and has written a letter asking him to treat this situation with the seriousness it deserves. I join her in encouraging you to do the same.

cross-posted at The Curvature

21 thoughts on Teacher Binds Students in Lesson on Slavery

  1. I’m a history teacher and I fully support the use of role playing in class. It is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to get students to connect to the past and realize that the events we are discussing involved real people. But this teacher clearly took things too far. There are so many things wrong with this I don’t know where to begin.

    As teachers we tend to know a lot about our students home lives (especially up through middle school), but we don’t know everything. Parents don’t always share information about a trauma their child has experienced, sometimes because they don’t know, sometimes because they don’t want their child thought of as different, and sometimes because they are responsible. Restraining a child who had been the victim of an assault or for whatever reason was afraid of being confined could cause serious long-term damage. Common sense should have told the teacher not to pick students for this example, but to only accept volunteers.

    I’m also not sure why the teacher felt the need to use actual tape. It does have the potential to tear skin – especially if that skin has hair on it. Why would anyone take that kind of nsk with children? Furthermore, had there been an emergency, these girls could not have gotten out of the school as easily. So no matter who was used in the example and how excited the students were to volunteer, they were still put in an unsafe position.

    White teachers, like myself, need to pay special attention to not to always make black students the example when it comes to slavery or Jim Crow or any other point in history when African-American rights have been violated or ignored. Otherwise, you can create an environment where it is okay for certain students to be treated differently – even if that’s not your intention. Plus, if you are going to do something that requires students to be placed in an uncomfortable position (like, you know getting under a desk), you damn well better pick students that are willing to do so. Let’s face it, we’re talking about a role playing exercise for middle schoolers, not a big-budget movie, so no one is going to be offended if the teacher takes a little liberty with the casting.

    I’m going to give Ms. Bernstein the benefit of the doubt and assume that the general risk to all students and the specific risk to Gaby that she took with this exercise was not intentional. If she is willing to do the work to make things better for Gaby and ensure that she never does something like this again, then she should be given a second chance. However, if both she and the principal think that what she did was simply an oopsie that can be glossed over, then there should be some serious personnel changes at that school.

  2. OK, setting aside the fact that tying up your students is wrong on all sorts of levels…

    if the idea is to help students identify with historical slaves, shouldn’t you make a point of picking WHITE students for the roles? Why would you want to send a message that only black people should care about slavery and be able to extend empathy to its victims?

  3. Just wrong.

    I agree with the above commenter that role playing and demonstrations are a great way for kids to learn, particularly when it comes to developing empathy. I helped with a humane education program once where we went to schools and had the children “act out” factory farming conditions for hens, calves, and sows.

    But we never, ever forced any children to participate – it was all volunteer. And we never ever actually physically restricted them with tape or anything else.

    For example, we asked for volunteers. Then we asked them take off their shoes and stand on a milk crate. Then we explained that’s what it’s like for hens. They stand on a wire cage, not grass or dirt. Then we explained they’re crowded together tightly, like on a packed subway, for their entire lives. We explained that it smells bad. And we asked if they’d like to live that way.

    Then we showed pictures of the factory farms. And we asked for suggestions on what kids could do to make it better. We reminded them that every little bit counts. Doing “Meatless Mondays,” for example, is a good idea. And raising money for animal rescue organizations is a good idea. Asking senators to make laws to protect animals is a good idea. The list went on and it was all centered on what the kids thought of themselves and what the kids could actually do themselves.

    When I helped with the program, I tried to get boys involved a bit more than girls because I think girls tend to identify with animals a little more easily on their own (because of social expectations and sexism). And, though for certain things – like the egg laying hens in battery cages and the sows in gestation crates – it only happens to the females, I didn’t want to recreate that exactly by only choosing girls to play those roles. I wanted to make sure we weren’t perpetuating sexism. And I saw it as an opportunity to inspire a bit of feminism, too, by getting the boys to better understand the female condition of forced reproduction.

    Regardless, I and the other instructor made sure the children truly volunteered. And during the entire process we asked them if they wanted to stop. And we never actually touched the kids at all. We were very careful not to force anyone to do anything and no one ever cried or complained. We carefully drew the line between showing them the horrors of factory farming and traumatizing them. The program was tailored for the age. THe kids and teachers both seemed to really appreciate it and I think we may have helped foster part of a kinder, more compassionate generation 🙂 I hope, anyway.

  4. There’s a reason that Bernstein felt that it was perfectly okay to bind those students and humiliate and traumatize them in front of their peers. There’s a reason that she’s not sorry. And there’s a reason why she still has her job.

    Exactly. And that reason is the difference between institutional racism and prejudice. She may indeed not have realized she was doing anything wrong, might even still believe it, because to her it is natural to see black girls as bodies that can be used for a demonstration. I suspect Ms. Bernstein does genuinely feel sorry that Gaby was upset but that she thinks her pain is an individual quirk, which makes me worry about how this teacher is going to act in the future.

    Had this demonstration traumatized a white girl–say, if white girls had been chosen based on some claim of needing to show white children what it’s like–I’m sure the teacher would have been more severely reprimanded though perhaps not fired. For a variety of reasons, ranging from teacher shortages to union contracts, it can be difficult to impossible to get rid of poor teachers.

  5. Can we say “overreaction”? This teacher made two mistakes. One was to pick a student that had not volunteered. The demonstration had the potential for traumatizing some students, but students who volunteered for it would be the ones not likely to overreact. I am not insensitive to the girl’s feelings, but as a parent of a young girl, I hope I am teaching her to be emotionally strong and to learn to deal with the situations she may one day face, including potentially traumatizing ones.

    The teacher’s other mistake was in not facing the reality of the U.S. teaching system, in which we mustn’t teach anything that might upset a student or their parents. I take issue with the person who says that this teacher is a bad teacher, how do you know that from this one incident? Maybe she is and maybe she isn’t. Why is it bad to teach students something of the horror and shame that was slavery? Why is it bad to put them into a position where, though coming to no real harm, they can experience a small fraction of that horror for themselves? Movies and books are powerful tools, but experiencing something yourself leads to the greatest sympathy for those who lived it, or are living it.

    That being said, there are limits to what a teacher should be able to inflict on students in the name of teaching. Perhaps a wise teacher would have decided to discuss such a demonstration with the principal first, or to send home permission slips for participation ahead of time.

  6. but as a parent of a young girl, I hope I am teaching her to be emotionally strong and to learn to deal with the situations she may one day face, including potentially traumatizing ones.

    How sad is it that we must teach our daughters to be “strong” (seemingly meaning “shut up and deal”) in the face of people in positions of greater social power taking control of their bodies?

    No, we ought to be teaching our daughters to raise as much hell as possible about that kind of injustice.

    There are a lot of things that I could say to the ignorance displayed in the rest of your comment, but I refuse to respond to it until you show some evidence of having read, understood and intellectually engaged with Renee’s post, which answers most of your questions. And while I would try to force them, I hope that others will choose to follow suit.

  7. Can’t say much except that this is horrible!!!

    I’m sure the teacher would have been more severely reprimanded though perhaps not fired. For a variety of reasons, ranging from teacher shortages to union contracts, it can be difficult to impossible to get rid of poor teachers.

    Unless the teacher in question is a new teacher teaching for less than 5 or so years, s(he) firing or even classroom removal is a time-consuming bureaucratic process because of tenure, union contracts, and an educational bureaucracy that prefers inertia and avoidance of any actions which may shed further negative light on their systems.

    It is also probably a reason why after “zero tolerance” policies were implemented in schools that teachers and education administrators have increasingly preferred to punish both the perpetrator and victims of bullying and other fighting/physical assault incidents. Obviously, attempting to figure out who was the perpetrator(s) and focusing the punishment on them is TOO MUCH DAMNED WORK!!! /snark

  8. This woman should be FIRED! That was racist and she should NOT be given the benefit of a doubt. She scarred that girl twice. First by her reckless actions, and second by making her experience the cool indifference of others due to her race and genders. None of the people in power see fit to right the wrong done this young black girl, because as such she is persona non grata.

    This damage cannot be easily undone, if not at all. Cruel that at 13 this girl has to learn first hand of the most enduring of America’s failed promises.

  9. I cannot fucking believe that people are defending this teacher here and suggesting that she should be afforded any kind of “benefit of the doubt.” I don’t give a fuck about the teacher’s likely *intentions* were. Whether or not she meant well, she showed such poor judgment that she should not be allowed to continue in a capacity in which she works closely with young children. She traumatized a child. Even if I child had “volunteered” for the demonstration, this kind of thing would still show exceptionally poor judgment. I am disgusted by the fact that some folks on here are more worried about the teacher’s ability to keep her job than they are about the trauma that was inflicted on the young child. Someone who would do what she did does not belong working with young children.

    Not to mention, of course, that she displayed such complete ignorance about this country’s history of slavery and of its legacy that the whole incident begs the question… What business has she teaching children about it in the fucking first place?

  10. I am not insensitive to the girl’s feelings, but as a parent of a young girl, I hope I am teaching her to be emotionally strong and to learn to deal with the situations she may one day face, including potentially traumatizing ones.

    I was just talking with a friend about how troubling it is that the norm seems to be one should feel bad merely for being offended, that simply for being wronged, you are in fact wrong. Being hurt by something hurtful is not a sign of weakness, nor is it a character flaw, and I only hope I can teach the children I have any influence over that there is nothing wrong with speaking up when you are harmed – in any way.

    As a society, we’d probably move a lot farther a lot faster if it wasn’t considered desirable to ignore wrongdoing in the name of “strength”.

  11. “I am not insensitive to the girl’s feelings, but as a parent of a young girl, I hope I am teaching her to be emotionally strong and to learn to deal with the situations she may one day face, including potentially traumatizing ones.”

    Wow. School is not the place where people should be learning to deal with these situations. Not only should things like this not happen at school, but schools need to be actively discouraging sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. What is allowed in schools is ridiculous. Really, we all need to be writing to our school boards and asking what they’re doing about it.

  12. I teach in a charter school, with a largely African American student population.

    I can’t believe the posters here who are giving the benefit of the doubt to the teacher. This exercise DOES NOT and COULD NOT teach empathy, sympathy or any other pathy, and she should get her ass fired for this, period. While role playing has its place in the classroom, what the fuck ever happened to dialogue and discussion and reading and students engaging with activists and leaders to encourage critical thinking, or is that too old-fashioned pedagogy? I invite people to my classroom engaged in social justice movements, and it teaches the kids a hell of a lot more, and without harm, than any ham-fisted attempts to teach kids “what it was like” (as if we could EVER teach them what it was really like, because we simply can’t). I just want to ask this teacher, “How DARE you do this to this child, any child?”. It doesn’t matter what her intent was at all; the result was racist.

    And I find it very interesting that very few people have posted comments here, compared to other posts at Feministe.

    I never thought I would say this in a million years, but the unions, as much as we need them, do protect teachers like this, and they shouldn’t. We need reform, badly.

  13. Why is it bad to teach students something of the horror and shame that was slavery? Why is it bad to put them into a position where, though coming to no real harm, they can experience a small fraction of that horror for themselves? Movies and books are powerful tools, but experiencing something yourself leads to the greatest sympathy for those who lived it, or are living it.

    Slaves were beaten, tortured, abducted, imprisoned, chained, sold, abused, starved, hunted, murdered, orphaned, raped, forced to bear children, and worked to death. Which of these totally accurate scenarios should these young women have been asked to recreate, for their benefit and the benefit of their fellow students? Would a play slave auction have been good for them, too? A mock classroom lynching?

    Maybe some of the boys and girls could have dressed up as slave hunters, while some of their classmates fled in terror of their lives, and the kids could have learned all about the Fugitive Slave Act and Harriet Tubman. Or the teacher could bring in a bunch of cotton balls and some craft glue, and then the kids could have recreated harvest time and learned all about being horsewhipped for failing to make your quota.

    I mean, seriously? What next, creating a teachable moment about the burning times with a real stake? Buck v. Bell with a desktop operating table and some other lucky teenage girl? Where did you go to school, and how many of your classmates lost limbs when you studied the Civil War?

    You don’t have to humiliate and terrify people in order to give them empathy, or pretend that their humiliation has social value in order to teach them perspective. The reason the non-volunteer was so traumatized is that she already knows, much better than her teacher, what history means. She wasn’t upset because she had to crouch under a desk for a class period. It’s the teacher whose ignorance needs correcting–along with her professionalism. If you can’t explain the horrors of the fucking slave trade to students without asking students to become audiovisual aids, you have no business being in a classroom anyway.

  17. I’ve been amazed at how many reporters, columnists and bloggers have gone out of their way to protect the teacher, commenting that she just couldn’t have meant any racism, that she must have had good intentions, she was just naive and misled in this particular lesson on slavery. Oh puleeze!

    There is another good article on this on Ethic Soup blog at:

    http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/12/teachers-ethics-lesson-dont-bind-black-students-to-teach-slavery.html#more

    Sharon McEachern

  19. i’m not even sure i’m that mad at THE TEACHER. i mean, she’s a moron, she gets disciplined, whatever. my concern is that the larger public does see this is anot a big deal. one person being an asshole is not going to go away-but when the act (horrid as it was) is not censured, THAT is where the institutionalised racism shows up. oddly, i was discussing this with a coworker just now-and his assertion was that the kid just had to suck it up-“in the grand scheme of things, this just isn’t that bad.” he listed some worse things-things occurring, btw, in war zones and 3rd world countries. he did not even recognise that there is NO kind of comparison. that something like this should happen in a supposedly first world country horrifies me. and again-realistically, people will be assholes…my main concern is the tacit approval from the public.

  20. regneko: Yeah, I mean… That something like this could happen anywhere in the world is horrifying. I don’t think a country’s level of industrialization has much to do with the fact that there are racists who abuse children, and the general public seems to see this as the Natural State of Things and Not That Bad.

  21. Wow, where does one start? I’m so afraid when it comes time to teach about the KKK and lynchings.

    Even better, what does Eileen Bernstein do when she teaches the part about the holocaust? ….starve a student…or perhaps send a student into the shower and then…..?

    Seriously reprimand Eileen Bernstein. And the student, be for real, if she’s traumatized by that, she’ll be a “basket case” in a real world where sick people actually do greater harm than that to each other, every day.

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