High Schoolers Forced To Lay In Dark Room, Wrists Bound As 'Slavery Project'...

a reply to: Aazadan

Which should be the stronger drive? Self preservation or acting justly? I would say that acting without killing intent is stronger, and that in some cases self sacrifice is necessary to uphold societies ideals.

I'm going to assume you have no wife or children. Self-sacrificing your life because you can't muster the gumption to protect it (the highest ideal, imo) against a thug should never be called "the stronger drive".

a reply to: queenofswords

Correct, no wife or children. I'll likely never marry, though I'm not opposed to adopting a kid if we ever get to the point that we let single people adopt.

I think that the idea that people shouldn't kill is a pretty good one (and for whatever it's worth, most religions agree with me on that point, including all of the major ones). That means, I should also be willing to choose (possible) death over killing another. Naturally, that also means that it's wrong to kill to protect your family... but none of that has anything to do with the point of this thread which is if this lesson plan was right or wrong.

I'm still waiting for someone to actually defend why it's wrong, with more than hyperbole.

a reply to: TonyS

Most of the railroad work was post-Civil War so it technically wasn't slavery---according to the histories written by the railroad magnates. wink, wink, nod However, the iron industry in western Tennessee was in the 1840-50s era and apparently Chinese slaves were imported because it was by then illegal to import Africans and the mining concerns couldn't find enough slaves or whites willing to do the work or knowledgeable enough to do the work.

I had no idea of this aspect of our history until I had a serious health issue and blood tests showed that my ancestry included at least one Chinese ancestor. My father had passed away several years prior but when the doc asked about my Chinese grandmother I was reminded of his words when I asked him what our heritage was---"You're a pure-bred mongrel. You've got Scots Irish, Cherokee, German and a Chinawoman in your ancestry." I thought he was pulling my leg but as I researched further I learned about the Chinese slaves that were brought to western Tennessee to work in the iron making industry. They were apparently part of the "sojourners" that left China about that time for the US. China was suffering from unrest, a population explosion and the first of the opium wars.

My ancestor and her brother were trained as charcoal burners, people who knew how to build a wood pile to create charcoal for the furnaces. I have no idea how they got to the area but after the brother died, my many greats grandfather bought her and married her. She died 7 years later, shortly after the birth of their third child. He was a woodcutter for the iron industry until it closed down a few years before the war began.

Apparently there was a small Chinese community in what is now known as Land Between the Lakes even though it is not publicly admitted. Local residents have given some oral histories on the subject but attempts by archaeologists to find and authenticate the occupation have been denied.

a reply to: diggindirt

Honestly, the Chinese got it worse than the Africans did. It just doesn't get nearly as much time in history classes. We generally tried to keep African slaves alive, because they were a big investment. The Chinese on the other hand were so cheap, and so plentiful that they were worked to death routinely, their lives had no value.

a reply to: seasonal

Fun fact: Only a tiny portion of the U.S. populace owned slaves. Plus, many Americans are immigrants from Europe which has absolutely NO ties to slavery. But each and every single person gets blamed for it equally.

For 10 years this was fine.

Now, we live in such a PC culture the namby-pambys scream, "Won't someone think of the snowflake children!"

It's gets boring reading a book all the time, listensing to a teacher yammer on At least the teachers were trying to make learning more engaging.

a reply to: curme

For 10 years this was fine.

Now, we live in such a PC culture the namby-pambys scream, "Won't someone think of the snowflake children!"

It's gets boring reading a book all the time, listensing to a teacher yammer on At least the teachers were trying to make learning more engaging.

Yep, put the books down, get your hand bound-lay on the floor in a dark room-watch something on tv you had nothing to do with-and have the teachers who are slave ship captains yell stuff at you.

Mission accomplished.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: curme

For 10 years this was fine.

Now, we live in such a PC culture the namby-pambys scream, "Won't someone think of the snowflake children!"

It's gets boring reading a book all the time, listensing to a teacher yammer on At least the teachers were trying to make learning more engaging.

Yep, put the books down, get your hand bound-lay on the floor in a dark room-watch something on tv you had nothing to do with-and have the teachers who are slave ship captains yell stuff at you.

Mission accomplished.

If it was a school play you'd have a problem with it.
Gotcha.

a reply to: Aazadan

Authority does not in any way assume total knowledge and/or wisdom about a subject. It simply means society or a group of people decided, based on some arbitrary spec, that an individual or group be given permission (the key here is permission) to control the flow of certain information. This by no means indicates that that individual or group is infallible by any stretch of the imagination. If you believe that Authority is immune to scrutiny, why are you even a part of ATS?

Just because we as a country elected a president, doesn't mean the president won't be the worst/best in history, but we were given "authority" to decide - in-other-words "permission". The truth is that no person is the Authority on anything; we are all living in our own echo chambers. This thread is about how we "feel" (subjective) about this topic, not whether we can objectify what's "right" or "wrong". Vanilla isn't any better than chocolate and neither is chocolate any better than vanilla. Stop arguing about nonsense; you seem intelligent enough to know when you're asking the wrong questions.

Whether you think the content in the OP is "right" or "wrong" your opinion shall be respected. State your beliefs and back them up with your own experience, but don't be intellectually dishonest by implying that since no one can be "right", you're "right" by extension.

Here's a little secret.... there is no "right" answer because it's all subjective. You can not debate subjectivity objectively, it's impossible, there is no resolve for an argument surrounding opinion. It's a shame you haven't realized that yet or just don't care. Don't even get me started on the fact that you brought up ethics, really? Nothing could be more subjective than ethics and morality.

Howabout you just tell us your personal preferences and be done with this nonsense. Leave the existential debate for the philosophy/religious forums. It's a simple question of whether you agree or disagree with the information in the OP, what your experience tells you and/or how that makes you feel. It's so simple a child could do it.

Here, I'll go first: I disagree that we need to physically reenact the violent and abhorrent times in our history; learning about the atrocities specifically from a knowledge standpoint is good enough. I feel like it's nothing more than an agenda to continue to divide this country, one of many facets already inculcated into the masses to propagate division. It's happening even now as I type.

Am I right? Does it matter?
It's my opinion, it doesn't matter if it's right to you, it's right to me. Get over it. Believe it or not, there is no ultimate truth, only perspective.

Godspeed.

a reply to: seasonal

Absolutely ridiculous. The school and whoever's responsible should be sued and the school placed under strict observation.

Uh yikes? I'm all for truly understanding the effects of slavery, but...

a reply to: seasonal

Americans are bringing things from the past, things that do not concern none of us. Keep doing it and your future will no be bright...

Private armies will arise, communities will be locked and those who do not belong to to race with more resources will be left ou to live in slums like in south america or india.

Is this what you want? Go ahead.

I a reply to: diggindirt

Interesting, thanks!

Do i need to report my old school then? I mean when we did Henry V we re-enacted some of it - and we had some French lads at our school. Surely that qualifies as child cruelty and xenophobia?

And then we did MacBeth - and repeatedly acted out the witches scene. That is cultural bias against pagan belief practices if ever i saw it, mocking portraying those poor warted ladies and then forcing good, Christian children to read the lines of the witches.

Terrible. It's a wonder any of us ever survived such a hell hole.

I'm speechless.

originally posted by: Aedaeum
Am I right? Does it matter?
It's my opinion, it doesn't matter if it's right to you, it's right to me. Get over it. Believe it or not, there is no ultimate truth, only perspective.

Then what can you base the opinion on? Personal opinion? Personal opinion doesn't go very far when parents are unqualified to comment on the activity. That leads to the ignorant determining policy on things they don't understand. Which tends to be a large issue in our society.

It's a much deeper subject than simply "I'm the parent, and my precious snowflake shouldn't be exposed to that".

If you believe that Authority is immune to scrutiny, why are you even a part of ATS?

On the contrary, I think we give the wrong people authority all too often, because they don't live up to those standards.

a reply to: Aazadan

Um, parents are the stop and end all to this kind of "learning". Or do you have another reason to stop it when the light of day was shone on it? It was not stopped immediately because it was not a great idea.

Then what can you base the opinion on? Personal opinion? Personal opinion doesn't go very far when parents are unqualified to comment on the activity. That leads to the ignorant determining policy on things they don't understand. Which tends to be a large issue in our society.

.

originally posted by: seasonal
Um, parents are the stop and end all to this kind of "learning". Or do you have another reason to stop it when the light of day was shone on it? It was not stopped immediately because it was not a great idea.

Why? Parents get things wrong all the time. Take Common Core for example, most math professors agree that what it teaches is the best way to teach math, it's even how we used to teach it. But the parents were given subpar educations and don't understand it... so they're against it. Should children be held hostage to the failures of their parents?

You can make the same argument for history.

High Schoolers Forced To Lay In Dark Room, Wrists Bound As 'Slavery Project'..

Do they teach the era of the Roman Empire where pretty much EVERYONE that wasn't a Roman Citizen was a slave ?

My guess is not.

That's right social justice sychophants.

People of ALL colors have been slaves throughout world history.

a reply to: Aazadan

This has zero to do with common core.

This has to do with binding students hands, telling them to lay down on the floor in a dark room, turning on roots, and having the teachers act like slave ship captains.

I will side on the side of parents on this one. Oddly enough so did the school.