As a Southerner, I’m painfully aware of the racial minefields littered throughout American history. It’s not something we dwell on every day, but we Southerners often have to reckon with the sins of past generations.
My mom worked in both public and private school education, and she said that she often had to teach kids some of the difficult history of segregation. One teacher she taught with told the children of her fear of walking through white neighborhoods as a young girl, and my mom vividly remembered separate entrances and facilities like drinking fountains for white and black people.
In red states and sometimes at the federal level, leftists charge that conservatives want to avoid the “difficult” parts of our history, but that’s generally not true. Conservative educators understand the importance of explaining even the horrific side of our history to the next generation in the hopes that we won’t repeat the same mistakes later.
In one metro Atlanta school, a teacher is in hot water for teaching about one of those dark periods in American history. Fox 5 reports that a teacher at Honey Creek Elementary School in Rockdale County, which is east of Atlanta, was teaching about Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend a formerly segregated school in New Orleans in 1960.
According to reports, the teacher posted signs that read "For Whites Only" and "For Colored Only" as part of the lesson.
A parent of a Honey Creek Elementary student addressed the Rockdale County Board of Education during its April 17 meeting to express concern over the signs (watch meeting here). She urged the board to take the investigation seriously and emphasized the need for accountability. The parent also claimed that the spouse of a school administrator had "shamed" her on the Nextdoor app after she posted about the incident online. In addition, she requested that counseling be offered to students who may have been emotionally affected by the display.
In a letter sent to parents and guardians, the school's principal stated that although there was no belief of "ill intent," the activity was not part of the teacher’s submitted lesson plan and had not been approved by school administration.
The state and county NAACP chapters are condemning the incident and demanding training for staff and students, safe spaces (you can’t make this stuff up), and “Mandatory anti-racism education rooted in historical truth.” What’s odd is that the teacher was teaching “historical truth.”
“Segregation is taught in Georgia public schools — and in other states — as an essential part of U.S. history,” Fox 5 explains. “The goal is to help students understand the country’s past, particularly the long and ongoing struggle for civil rights and racial equality.”
“Georgia played a major role in both enforcing segregation laws and in the fight to end them,” Fox 5 continues. “For example, Atlanta was home to numerous civil rights leaders and organizations. Understanding Georgia’s past is key to grasping national history and the civil rights movement.”
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In other words, students can benefit from learning about segregation because not only does it show how hard some people had it in earlier generations, but it also demonstrates that race relations are so much better now. My mom and I were having a conversation about this story yesterday, and she said, “When kids learn about segregation and the civil rights movement, they can see how far we’ve come as a society.”
It’s worth noting that the NAACP regularly commemorates lynchings and other horrible racially motivated historical incidents. The NAACP also overwhelmingly (if not exclusively) supports Democrats, and I want to remind everybody that the Democrats are the party that defended and argued for the institution of slavery.
The school said in a letter to families that its biggest concern is that the teacher had not included the exercise in that week’s lesson plans.
"Please know that this activity was not included in the teacher’s submitted lesson plans and was not approved by school administration,” the letter read. “While we do not believe there was ill intent, we do expect all faculty to follow the plans that are submitted and approved."
Maybe the teacher was wrong in going about the lesson the way he or she did, but the NAACP is way out of line in blowing this whole incident out of proportion. Rockdale County doesn’t need to create safe spaces or add more left-wing training to its school system. The school should handle its discipline internally, and that’s all that needs to take place.
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