Social studies homework draws ire
District vows diversity talks after ‘ slavery simulation’ assignment
OXFORD — While civil unrest and protests continue across the country following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, a local middle school teacher has touched off controversy with a school assignment involving a simulation requiring students to portray slaves escaping to freedom.
The school board president said it was a “poor decision,” one that has prompted the district to create “a series of initiatives to
address diversity” in the wake of the social media firestorm.
“My little 13- year- old sister’s school gave her a homework assignment to be a SLAVE,” one Twitter user posted Wednesday, along with screenshots of the June 2 assignment given to students at Great Oak Middle School.
“This is disgusting,” another user wrote. “This is living in Black trauma and re- creating Black trauma for what? This is the worst assignment. The education system really is going down hill.”
The virtual simulation, found on the National Geographic website and marketed as an education resource, places a student on a plantation in the pre- Civil War South and tasks them with making decisions to escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
National Geographic called the online interactive learning tool “Journey to Freedom,” but as of Friday the simulation was no longer available.
National Geographic did not respond to a request for comment. Great Oak Principal An
thony Hibbard referred questions on the matter to Superintendent of Schools Jason McKinnon.
McKinnon said he discussed the impact of the lesson with the student’s parent, and teachers and students in the community on Thursday.
McKinnon said the assignment was not part of the school’s social studies curriculum.
“While the teacher did not mean to upset any students, it was hurtful for members of our school community,” the superintendent said Friday. “I did speak with the teacher who regrets her lesson plans choices.”
Stephanie Miller, who heads the Oxford Board of Education, said the teacher, “who is in the early part of her career,” trusted the simulation since it was created by National Geographic and included on their website.
“All agree it was a poor decision and it has been dealt with and corrected,” Miller said. “In light of what is happening in our country, we have put in a series of initiatives to address diversity.”
McKinnon said the district will convene a panel of students, educators and school board members to discuss these events and their impact on future teaching assignments.
He also asked the Rev. Audley
Donaldson, an Episcopalian priest, and Paul Vivian, a program manager with the Connecticut Family Resource Center, to participate in the discussions. Vivian has mediated similar issues with school districts, their administrators and their teachers, according to his biographical information.
“These are two experienced presenters who specialize in multilayered issues of diversity, stereotyping and racism,” McKinnon said.
The superintendent said the goal is to develop a “clear vision of those topics and engage our educational community in an ongoing dialogue.”
The discussions, along with future plans, will be posted on the Oxford Public Schools website and their social media accounts, he said.
McKinnon and Assistant Superintendent of Schools Robert Miller will be coordinating the discussions.
First Selectman George Temple said he is aware of the situation and does not believe the assignment was given maliciously or to create racial tension.
“It should have been thought out better and I’m sure she wishes she did not assign it,” he said.
Temple said a diversity dia
logue is in order.
Greg Johnson, head of the Valley NAACP, took it a step further, recommending the town’s entire education staff undergo racial bias and diversity training so this does not happen again.
“The NAACP will be more than willing to step in and assist in the training,” said Johnson, who was attending Ansonia’s Unity Rally Thursday along with Ansonia Alderman Diane Stroman.
“Can you believe it?” Stroman said to Johnson after learning of the school assignment. “Can you believe it? Acting out slavery? In this day and time — it’s appalling. It’s demeaning.”
Stroman, who is on the board of directors of the Valley Community Foundation and a retired executive with TEAM, the Derbybased anti- poverty agency, agreed that diversity training is needed in Oxford.
“This is totally unacceptable in our education system,” Johnson said. “We should be teaching justice, peace and equality to our middle school and high school students because they are our future.”
Johnson suggested the teacher be disciplined, but state Sen. George Logan, R- Ansonia, said it was all about the teacher’s intent.
“If the intent was good but the activity bad, at the very least there must be a review. But I’m all giving people a second chance,” Logan said.
Logan said the assignment reminded him of a similar incident that took place in January in Hamden where a fifth- grade teacher cast two minority students as slaves in a play.
Logan was also attending Ansonia’s rally, as were Dave Gatison, a deacon at Macedonia Baptist Church, and the Rev. Edward Barnes of the Greater Evangelical Temple, both in Ansonia.
Barnes agreed the teacher should be asked about her intent, but he warned against a rush to judgment. Instead he suggested the town use it as “a learning process.”
But Gatison wondered why such a lesson would be used in these times where the recent killings of black men in Georgia and Minnesota are tearing the nation apart.
He said there are movies, books and published history about slavery and the Underground Railroad that could have been used.
“Why would someone want to stir up controversy now?” Gatison said. “This should be a time for healing.”