Missouri Teacher On Leave After Asking Students To ‘Set Your Price For A Slave’
A Missouri elementary school teacher was placed on administrative leave after she gave students an assignment asking them to set a price for a slave.
A teacher at Blades Elementary School in Oakville, Missouri, gave fifth-grade students a social studies assignment that asked them to imagine that they work in the slave trade.
Part of the assignment involved the children setting a price for a slave.
“You own a plantation or farm and therefore need more workers. You begin to get involved in the slave trade industry and have slaves work on your farm. Your product to trade is slaves. Set your price for a slave. _____________ These could be worth a lot. You may trade for any items you’d like,” one of the questions in the exercise read.
Chris Gaines, the superintendent for Mehlville School District, said that asking students to participate in an activity where they are required to put a price tag on another person is unacceptable.
“Racism of any kind, even inadvertently stemming from cultural bias, is wrong and is not who we aspire to be as a school district,” Gaines said in a letter. “I am sorry and disappointed that this happened in our school.”
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The details about the exercise went viral on Facebook after it was shared by Lee Hart, who said her friend’s child had brought the assignment home from school.
“It is so wrong on so many levels,” Hart wrote.