Do you see that picture above?  It’s a sketch of a slave trade.  Blacks being sold for profit and slave labor. As much as we try to move forward and into the future it is all but impossible to forget the past.  So schools are teaching children about this period in time where slavery was a legal operation and apropriately so.  But, when does the lesson plan cross the line?

A sixth grade social studies class in Melvindale, Michigan was asked to create a journal describing what their life would be like as a slave.  The assignment asked for each student to describe their slave master and his family.  They were also asked to describe how they would attempt to escape the plantation in which they were being held captive.  Really?  So in the sixth grade we are around 11, do you want the mind of your 11 year old burdened with the hatred, murderously vicious cycle of slavery?  It is one thing to learn of the events, but to be forced to basically relive the period and create a journal describing your experience just seems a little too intense.

What’s intriguing about the whole situation is that while the Oprah special on Roots is still fresh on my mind, it reminds me of how some of the characters in that movie are to this day unable to watch the movie again.  If these trained actors were affected in that fashion, I wonder what makes the school think that a lesson of this nature would be suitable for 11 and 12 year old children. Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE