No one likes homework, but one 12-year-old girl’s assignment was just offensive. The student, who attends Four Points Middle School near Austin, Texas, was sent home to school one day tasked with drawing herself as a slave. TF? She was also told to color and write a visualization of what she saw around her. “Write one sentence that describes your surroundings using each of the five senses,” the assignment read. Ugh.
Naturally, the girl’s mother was furious. Tonya Jennings told a local TV station that she was shocked when her daughter came home with the single-page assignment after school one day. Apparently, the homework was part of a lesson on Texas history and the Civil War. “There’s nothing about slavery that I would want any child, regardless of color to have to relive,” said Jennings, who is black. “It is completely out of place. ... To ask my child to put herself in a situation where she has to draw herself as a slave was an issue just, you know, all the way up the board," she said.
The school has launched an investigation into the incident and released the following statement: “The campus quickly responded to the parent to hear his concerns and discuss the situation. When teaching sensitive content, we strive to deliver lessons with care and context to our students.”
The school district added that it expects seventh graders to understand Texas’ role in the civil war, which includes topics such as slavery, states’ rights, tariffs, and sectionalism.
