By Carolyn Thompson
Associated Press
Recent cases of teachers coming under fire for holding mock slave auctions are highlighting schools’ struggles in teaching about slavery.
An investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James found in May that a mock “slave auction” that singled out black students at a private school in Westchester County, New York, had a profoundly negative effect on all involved students.
A similar exercise was held recently in a fourth-grade classroom in upstate New York’s Watertown City School District.
Families also criticized a Virginia obstacle course intended to replicate the underground railroad
The National Council for the Social Studies says there are no national standards on how to teach slavery.
A 2018 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center found dozens of teachers reporting simulations as their favorite lessons.
