SouthernN'Proud
Southern Discomfort
A Florida teacher who tired of hearing students refer to each other as “nigger” so casually and tried to teach them about the sordid history of the word during Black History Month has been suspended without pay and faces dismissal for making it an answer for a written quiz, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Eight-grade teacher Dohn Bear, who says he marched with MLK in Selma in the 1960s, said he wanted to teach kids not the use the word, and using “African-American” just didn’t cut it.
The quiz that got him in trouble was part of a lesson on Rosewood, the predominantly black Florida village wiped out by white mobs in 1923.
School officials say they have a zero tolerance policy and accused the teacher of using poor judgment.
The Times says it is one of a series of racially charged events in Pinellas County school in recent months. In one of the other cases, it says, a black middle school student complained when a white teacher said he was "taking your cotton-picking sweet time" to get to class.
**end**
So....if a kid says it, it's OK, but if an adult says it, it's bad. OK, now I understand.
That's what you get for trying your damndest to teach someone about their heritage. The real one instead of the contrived myth. These students should know about the awful deeds perpetrated on their ancestors. But instead, they learned a different lesson entirely. Sad, really.
Eight-grade teacher Dohn Bear, who says he marched with MLK in Selma in the 1960s, said he wanted to teach kids not the use the word, and using “African-American” just didn’t cut it.
The quiz that got him in trouble was part of a lesson on Rosewood, the predominantly black Florida village wiped out by white mobs in 1923.
School officials say they have a zero tolerance policy and accused the teacher of using poor judgment.
The Times says it is one of a series of racially charged events in Pinellas County school in recent months. In one of the other cases, it says, a black middle school student complained when a white teacher said he was "taking your cotton-picking sweet time" to get to class.
**end**
So....if a kid says it, it's OK, but if an adult says it, it's bad. OK, now I understand.
That's what you get for trying your damndest to teach someone about their heritage. The real one instead of the contrived myth. These students should know about the awful deeds perpetrated on their ancestors. But instead, they learned a different lesson entirely. Sad, really.
