Students at a San Antonio, Texas charter school were asked to complete an assignment that soon won’t be forgotten.
The teacher who led the assignment at Great Hearts Monte Vista Charter School stated that she was only following the instructions annotated in Prentice Hall Classics: A History of the United States.
Students were given the task of listing “positive and negative aspects” of slavery giving a “balanced view.”
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This is absolutely unacceptable. A @GreatHeartsTX charter school in San Antonio asked students to complete a “balanced view” assignment about slavery, requiring them to list the “positive aspects” of slave life. The teacher worked from a @pearson textbook. pic.twitter.com/mzEWty68tB
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) April 19, 2018
Manu Livar, a student in the class expressed, “When I first read it, I thought, this was b.s.”
Livar’s mother saw the assignment and immediately sent it to her husband. Roberto Livar posted on Facebook, “What the hell is this revisionist history lesson trying to achieve here?!?”
Aaron Kindel, the superintendent at Monte Vista said in a statement, “To be clear, there is no debate about slavery, it is immoral and a crime against humanity.”
The school is ceasing use of the textbooks amid a review. School officials have also stated that a discussion about the incident will ensue with the students affected.
A representative at Pearson, the parent company of Prentice Hall, stated that the material is not formulated or authorized by the company in any capacity.
So far, there has been no comment from the instructor.
