It seems that whenever school teachers create their own assignments rather than work from prescribed lesson plans, calamity or hilarity ensues — and sometimes both. It was the former in the case of an Ohio school teacher who asked students to pick four strangers to be admitted to their family bomb shelter in the case of a nuclear attack.
Among the choices the students were given were a “35 year old White male construction worker who is a racist,” a “40 year old Black female doctor who is a lesbian,” a “50 year old White male who is a Catholic Priest,” a “25 year old Hispanic male who is a lawyer and is wheelchair bound,” a “30 year old Korean-American female who is a former college athlete,” and a “20 year old White female who is pregnant, has a two year old son and is on welfare.”
The most recent outrage, also out of Ohio, is over a similar assignment that asks “students to decide based on age, religion, sexual orientation and other descriptors who they would save if the world was coming to an end.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
From the Cleveland Plain-Dealer:
A not-yet identified teacher at Roberts Middle School handed out the assignment, titled “Whom to Leave Behind.” The assignment asked students to choose eight of 12 persons to put on a space ship to take to a different planet because the Earth was doomed for destruction.
Descriptions of the possible passengers include a “militant African-American medical student,” a “homosexual, male professional athlete” and a “female movie star who was recently the victim of sexual assault.”
One parent said the assignment made her son uncomfortable and added, “This paper divides. It doesn’t pull anybody together.” Other parents called the assignment insensitive.
Ward 6 Councilman Adam Miller posted the assignment to his Facebook page, noting that the teacher, whose identity is being withheld, said he was trying to promote “diversity.”
Maybe instead he should try teaching social studies, the class for which the assignment was created.
