Idiot Teacher Asked 4th-Graders to Give 3 Good Reasons for Slavery

[moriah]

70. It entirely depends on the lesson the "homework" was based on.

I'll be honest -- 4th graders generally aren't very high on the Piaget/Kohlberg scales of moral development, and it's at that time they're just beginning to hit stage 3, if that, in Kohlberg's scale, that of moral direction coming from the views of others.

As such, any lesson about slavery at that age that doesn't make it clear slavery had no redeeming qualities, only rationalizations made by people who benefited from it, is beyond them. In junior high, in high school, you might have a debate team deliberately try to argue the pro-slavery argument, just as you might have them do that for numerous "bad positions", to learn more in-depth ways to counter such arguments.

But in 4th grade, such an lesson, hopefully, was more along the lines of (in the classroom), "Some people who benefited from slavery justified what they were doing. They weren't good rationalizations, each had flaws." An assignment to then list the reasons used to justify slavery and a counter-list of why slavery was actually bad would then be an appropriate homework assignment.

Or, even, "And some people were more honest in why they wanted slaves, instead of trying to justify their behavior with 'good' reasons." Then an assignment listing the flawed rationalizations and why they were flawed, and the honest reasons and why they violated morality, would also be good.

But neither is teaching critical thinking beyond "These people may have had reasons for doing what they did, but those reasons were wrong -- just because you have a reason doesn't mean the reason is factual or moral".

I admit I think kids should learn the reasons slavery-supporters justified it. Knowing the reasons people did bad things helps you learn not to do bad things, or fall for crappy reasons to do bad things. Just as we should teach kids why people justified westward expansion ("Manifest Destiny&quot . But we *shouldn't* argue, or have children potentially not even at the Interpersonal Conformity stage of moral development try to argue, that those reasons had any validity -- the prejudice, religious intolerance, and selfish self-interest that motivated those reasons should be stated all as bad things too.

Because they are. And yes, education is partially indoctrination. Especially at that age.