Current News USA Today: Teacher Placed On Leave Over ‘Set Your Price For A Slave’ Class Assignment
The teacher who gave a social studies assignment asking fifth-grade students at a Missouri school to “set a price” for trading slaves has been placed on administrative leave following the “culturally insensitive” assignment, school officials said.
Blades Elementary School Principal Jeremy Booker said in a letter sent to parents Monday, that the assignment was supposed to teach students market value in colonial America, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“Some students who participated in this assignment were prompted to consider how plantation owners traded for goods and slaves,” Booker wrote.
The controversial question read, “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,” according to KTVI.
The question then prompts students to set a price for a slave, noting, “These could be worth a lot.”
Meanwhile, a photo of the question was posted Sunday on Facebook.
According to KTVI, other questions in the assignment focus on trading commodities like fish, grains, lumber and turpentine.
The incident is currently under investigation. Booker told the newspaper that he plans to institute cultural bias training for his teachers and staff members.
“We are working together to ensure all students and families feel valued and respected at Blades Elementary.”
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