NEW YORK—Grade 7 teacher Patricia Cummings shocked and traumatized children in her social studies classes when she singled out Black students and told them to lie on the floor for a lesson on U.S. slavery — and then stepped on their backs to show them what slavery felt like. Kids and adults in Cummings’ school, where the student body is 81 per cent Black and Hispanic and just 3 per cent white, were horrified by the offensive lessons they said occurred roughly two weeks ago. “It was a lesson about slavery and the Triangle Trade,” said one of Cummings’ students, who asked to remain anonymous. “She picked three of the Black kids,” the boy said, and instructed them to get on the floor in front of the class. “She said ‘You see how it was to be a slave?’ She said, ‘How does it feel?’ ”

Source: thestar February 02, 2018 03:56 UTC