“Don’t be Uneased My Children” Finding Strength in Stories of the Enslaves” In the article “Don’t be Uneased My Children” Finding Strength in Stories of the Enslaves”, Lisa Gilbert, discussed how to take on teaching difficult topics in the classroom, such as slavery. Finding age appropriate ways to teach painful facts and stories from slavery had been a struggle for Elementary teachers. Starting a focus group, Gilbert invited teachers, nonprofits, and other leaders in her surrounding region. This group later lead to a roundtable for teachers. They worked together for years to better educate themselves and come up with ways to effectively teach about slavery. They discussed approaches to avoid, how to teach agency, and constructive approaches to teaching slavery in the classroom. …show more content…
This helped them began to identify approaches that could have been destructive to students’. Some teachers may have been implying that slavery was necessary to make the country progress. They also found that teaching students about exceptional slave stories, as if they were common, was also harmful. Very little slaves were treated like humans and teaching children this could be very problematic. Gilbert states, that some of these methods disregarded students unspoken feelings, therefore they discussed how to teach agency. In elementary school classrooms, the story of the Underground Railroad is a classic. This story is a prime example of survival, empowerment, and resistance. During these roundtables the teachers found ways to shine light on spefic slaves and their stories. Elementary students can relate to history if they can make connections. Using the story of Spotswood Rice, a slave who escaped to fight in the Civil War, and was later reunited with his family is an
After reading “The View From the Bottom Rail,” explore the CD-ROM on that chapter. Write one or two paragraphs about any insight, discoveries, or items of interest in relation to the topic of slavery. In addition, write another paragraph about the methodological challenges of doing interviews and the things one must keep in mind when reading history that includes interviews. Provide feedback to at least two classmates’ responses. I found it interesting that analogy that there are a top and bottom rails of society.
In the book “There Are No Children Here” written by Alex Kotlowitz, there is a passage where the main characters Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers mother LaJoe makes mention of Henry Horner Homes living conditions transformation over her thirty-one year residence. In this short passage, she is quoted as saying “When I got my apartment I thought this is what it was meant to be” (24). Her statement reflects how thirty-one years ago, she thought everything that was required for living a happy and fulfilling life was achieved. She believed that her luck had changed, and she was one of the few to have a life on the other side of the fence where the grass was greener. I believe LaJoe was oblivious like so many others, as to what the future may hold for
In the book “There Are No Children Here” written by Alex Kotlowitz, there is a passage where one of the main character Lafeyette, is attempting to convey his troubled thoughts to his mother through obscurities. Due to the sudden death of his friend Bird Leg, he tells his mother that his dead friend’s spirit is appearing and trying to tell him something. Unfortunately, even though his mother LaJoe tries to get him to verbalize his thoughts and feelings, his only reply to the death of his friend is quoted as saying, “That talking wasn’t going to help him, that every-thing that goes wrong keeps going on and everything that’s right doesn’t stay right.” (55) In his quote, there is depth to his view on life around him that one can interpret by reading between the lines. He is simply
In a recent article "Turn Off Messenger Kids, Health Experts Plead to Facebook", from New York Times the author, Cecilia Kang, discusses the concerns of pediatric and mental health experts in response to Facebook's new creation. Facebook has created a new application for the younger generation called "Messenger Kids". In the app, children have the ability to take selfies, group text, and even video chat. As Kang discusses the concerns of health experts, she remains unbiased and tells Facebook's response to the allegations of their app being harmful to the younger generation. The article, "Turn Off Messenger Kids, Health Experts Plead to Facebook" is somewhat rhetorically effective because the author includes detailed information from credible
What was never presented was the point of view from the African Americans because it was seemingly dismissed. It was eye-opening to read about the experience from an African’s perspective because it brought a whole new light to my understanding of what it meant to be a slave and the struggles black Americans face here in the US, even
It was one of the most significant and disputed practice ever to reach the shores of the Western Hemisphere. A dimensional issue that caused much argument and conflict on each of its multiple levels. This was the practice of Slavery. Taking a closer look, there are many different interpretations of what the attitude of American slaves were towards their work experiences. In order to fully answer this question, a closer examination, summary, and comparison will be made of three different historians and their ideas to accurately answer the overarching importance of this question.
From the time our country 's children start grade school they are learning about America’s history-- but is what they are learning about all a story from the past or do our country 's past mistakes continue on into current day? Every U.S history textbook covers the civil war, slavery, and the underground railroad, it is a staple in any modern day history class. Many of the horrors of slavery are addressed in Colson Whitehead’s novel “The Underground Railroad”, a fictional novel that takes us through the attempted escape of the protagonist Cora, a slave born and raised on a plantation in Georgia. Despite what the average person believes, the stories from the novel and our history books are not in the past-- but can be shown in what is considered modern-day slavery- better known under the term “human-trafficking”.
Many people have been slaves and prisoners since they were young. Some of them born there and are slaves or prisoners for their whole entire lives. Most of the time their lives are stuck in the darkness and never know what is going to come or happen to them. Every day in their lives they feel worry, afraid, and frightened because they’re scared that they might do something wrong or unable to do what they have been told. In their lives, the only goal they have is to escape from slavery and imprisonment or be a good slaves and prisoners.
From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.
Human slavery requires ignorance, just as an individual’s freedom, from oppression, requires knowledge attained by education. To maintain order and control over slaves, slavery demands ignorant slaves; thus, keeping slaves ignorant prevents slaves from recognizing the empowering value of education and education’s ability to liberate slaves from the effects of ignorance. Frederick Douglass’s pursuit of education helped him discover the dark, hidden truths of slavery in his article, “How I Learned to Read and Write.” Thus, the pursuit of education inspires a desire for freedom. The desire to learn generates determination and motivation.
In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.
The detailed descriptions included in primary sources, along with the descriptive and emotional illustrations included in graphic history are crucial elements in studying and understanding the process and history of the transatlantic slave trade. Rafe Blaufarb and Liz Clarke tie both of these together to help readers truly understand this historic tragedy in the book, Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle Against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Although different than the standard book that may be used, that simply spews information out in an uncreative and somewhat boring way, this book is a tool that can be chosen in classrooms to teach different aspects of the slave trade. Working together, the primary sources and graphic history
Censorship is an extremely debated topic in America, with people saying it contradicts with what the Bill of Rights has allowed the American people and how it may deny people use the Freedom of Speech. Yet, the censorship of books in American public schools is one of the most controversial topics today because of the use of racial slurs in classic literature, this is the case with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Opinions on this topic vary, with some of them being: schools should have the right to censor books because they have racial slurs in them, schools should have teachers open up a conversation about race and the use of racial slurs with these books, or schools should not have the right to censor any book. I firmly believe that schools
Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.
Introduction: During the 1800’s, Slavery was an immense problem in the United States. Slaves were people who were harshly forced to work against their will and were often deprived of their basic human rights. Forced marriages, child soldiers, and servants were all considered part of enslaved workers. As a consequence to the abolition people found guilty were severely punished by the law.