School reenactment/klan costumes

[HYHYBT]

I'm not yet sure what to think about this one, but it seems like a perfect topic for Fratching... a Lumpkin County GA history teacher is suspended because students making a film wore costumes at school.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100525/...ool_klan_robes

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Sounds to me like a few people shitting themselves over something they should be supporting. The students and teacher in question were trying to take a real look at the topic, racism, through depiction. Depiction is not the same as agreement, some people seem to have forgotten that.

In essence though, I'd say this is another instance of a balance between some people's feelings and other people's learning, only it's the people doing the learning in the hot seat this time.

[Hobbs]

Reminds me of a similar incident. A marching band's show was a depiction of WWII. At a certain point, the flags of the major powers are displayed (I think in symbolic one-against-the-other). Anywho, one of the flags, of course, was the Nazi flag. They stopped the band mid-show (I don't think it's at competition...a football game prolly) and there was a huge uproar. As a historian, it made me sigh inwardly and outwardly.

[Red Panda]

Talk about over exageration. I bet if it was a history of the black panters or something white kids would get laughed at for complaining.

[Giggle Goose]

"This stuff happened in history. Do you ignore it? No,"
"But you certainly don't walk the hallway in the garb."

This. It's wonderful that the teacher wanted to tackle these tough issues, but there's many other ways to do it besides allowing students to dress in the widely recognizable garb of an extremely notorious hate group. If I was that teacher, that idea would be an IMMEDIATE red flag. What was she thinking???!!!

[lordlundar]

Not the first time it has happened. Another teacher was giving a class on the problems of racism. Apparently it was so effective that a number of students complained to the school board about the racist teacher.

(and no, there was no mention of some form of retribution. Apparently he was well liked before the class)

[KnitShoni]

Talk about over exageration. I bet if it was a history of the black panters or something white kids would get laughed at for complaining.

Sad thing is, you're most likely right. White people cannot do ANYTHING in this country without someone getting their poor little feelings hurt.

[Hobbs]

A colleague of my mother once got a bunch of students in a tuff because they were reading something in Literature and the word, "niggerdly". The students were too ignorant to understand that it didn't mean what they thought it did.

[HYHYBT]

It makes sense, though, that if they're making a film they'd use costumes... looking at it again, I *think* the main problem is that those outside the class didn't know about it, and so, naturally enough, were surprised, upset, scared, etc at seeing what, without that knowledge, would have appeared to be actual klansmen (or those who'd like to be) roaming the halls.

[Sarah Valentine]

I remember a couple of years ago seeing something in the paper around Halloween that some kid went to school as "Charile Chaplin", and as soon as he arived he took off his coat and it was revealed that he was dressed up as Hitler.

[jackfaire]

This. It's wonderful that the teacher wanted to tackle these tough issues, but there's many other ways to do it besides allowing students to dress in the widely recognizable garb of an extremely notorious hate group. If I was that teacher, that idea would be an IMMEDIATE red flag. What was she thinking???!!!

*raises an eyebrow* Should the performance of Sound of Music at a school also be Taboo since some of the students would have to be in Nazi uniforms?

[McDreidel09]

A colleague of my mother once got a bunch of students in a tuff because they were reading something in Literature and the word, "niggerdly". The students were too ignorant to understand that it didn't mean what they thought it did.

Something like that happened at our school. My sophmore year of high school, we were reading Of Mice and Men, as it was part of the curriculum. We didn't have to read it out loud. We were just reading it to ourselves. Some of the black students complained to their parents, since the book used the word "nigger" a few times. Their parents raised all hell with the school and we had the books taken away without finishing them and had to choose a different book.

After the books were taken away, one kid looked at one of the students responsible for this and said "We were reading it in our heads, dumbass. You could have replaced the offending word with the word 'ninja' or something."

Luckily, the teacher didn't hear that one. The teacher was called racist by students by having us read this "racist" book. As far as I could tell, the teacher wasn't racist. She just didn't tolerate stupidity, no matter the gender or the race.

[blas87]

I'm just glad there weren't any black kids in my American Literature class. We read Huck Finn, and the name "Nigger Jim" is repeatedly in that book, and *gasp* we read nearly the entire book out loud in class, with permission to say "Nigger Jim".

Cheese and Rice, get over it, people.

[Racket_Man]

I remember a couple of years ago seeing something in the paper around Halloween that some kid went to school as "Charile Chaplin", and as soon as he arived he took off his coat and it was revealed that he was dressed up as Hitler.

Chaplin DID play a Hitler type character in the 1940 movie called "The Great Dictator". it spoofed the Nazis and fascism in general so what the kid did was in character. not that I agree but....


Heck even the 3 Stooges did like 6 "Hitler" type shorts. Moe Howard could play the "Hitler" type character almost to a T.

next thing is did the teacher tell the prinicple or the student body WHAT she was planning to do or did she just "spring it" upon everyone?? It seems to me from the article that the dressed up students just appeared in the hallways with no warning. I would assume that if prior warning/notice had been given, the impact might have been lessened a bit or the admin might have vetoed the idea.

[Greenday]

She probably could have handled this one better. Have them dress at the scene, not far away. But this was blown out of proportion by some oversensitive pricks. Now the teacher might get fired for something that in retrospect wasn't a big deal.