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A California school is under fire for giving students a controversial homework assignment.
KTLA reports that eighth-grade students at Hawthorne Middle School were required to keep a slave diary. The English class assignment instructed students to write in the diary in the voice of a slave for five days. The English teacher is white; the students and parents who took offense are black.
One student told KTLA that the assignment “made her feel bad” and that she “wouldn’t want to imagine being a slave.”
Parents called the assignment “inappropriate and demeaning.” One parent also pointed out that it would be impossible to write like a slave since most slaves were not allowed to learn how to read or write.
Some students, with their parents’ support, refused to complete the assignment. A few parents claimed they would be transferring their kids to another school.
School officials stand by the assignment. In a statement, Hawthorne School Superintendent Helen E. Morgan explained that the assignment was an “appropriate teaching strategy.”
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