Raeford NC — Angela Greene has gotten some negative feedback for her role in stopping a middle school project that was meant to teach a lesson about the Holocaust, but she doesn’t mind.
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“I am not the least bit deterred,” she said. “I am very glad we live in a country where it’s OK to be negative and it’s OK to be positive.”
Greene’s 13-year-old daughter attends eighth grade at East Hoke Middle School. Her English class was reading, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and she brought home a permission slip about a non-mandatory project.
English teacher Lynda Smallwood explained to parents that in this project, students would act as Jews and Nazis in class for a week. Students who take on the role of a Jew would “not be allowed to talk, engage in class activities, or anything else without the Nazi’s permission.”
Smallwood said in the letter that she hopes the “exercise will show the students the dangers of ignorance, silence and prejudices.”
Greene said the roleplay had actually been done the last two years, but she was the first parent to raise objections. She said she’s not opposed to students learning about the book or the Holocaust in general, but she doesn’t believe it’s appropriate for eighth graders to take on the role of a Nazi.
“You’re already putting a 12-year-old child in the role of something absolutely horrible,” she added. [news14]
Ms. Smallwood is My English teacher, and one of the greatest ones I’ve had so far. I think that this would have been a great project if I was given the opportunity to do it. Ubfortunatly Ms. Greene put a stop to it, which wasn’t at all necessary since it wasn’t a necessary assignment. Though I can’t be too harsh on Ms. Greene since she was standing up for an opinion.
All I can say is that it would’ve been a very moving experience to do this project and I am very sad that experience was taken away from me.
I’m a former student of Ms Smallwoods. I don’t believe it was a dumb or bad idea. She did this project on our class last year, and no one took it too far. It was a nice lesson on how the Nazi’s treated the Jews in their camps. It’s not supporting bullying or prejudice, it’s just the opposite. This isn’t why kids can be so disgusting to each other. Other more important factors play a role in that. The woman who protested, which I should say was just a girlfriend of the child’s father, is trying to hide the from things like this. These are things kids need to learn about! Everything was back to normal after the project was over!! No one was bullied afterwards. I mean, you’re not giving eighth graders the credit they deserve. They aren’t babies. Most eight graders are 13 years or older. They CAN think within the boundaries of logic. I know my class was able to. And Ms Smallwood was an awesome teacher. One of the best that I’ve had. If you knew her, you wouldn’t be saying these things.
what a stupid idea!!!
No, it wasn’t “The Wave”, which is a novel as well as a movie. This was a true-life documentary featuring elementary school students. Very interesting piece!
The mother of the Eighth Grader was absolutely right to put a stop to this project. Children of this age do not [generally] have the strength and it is absolutely unnecessary for them to experience the depth of emotions of the Holocaust victims –or perpetrators–; It’s enough for them to read and understand what the victims went through.
Are you thinking of “The Wave?” That was awesome.
Ms. Greene was right to protest, but it would appear this “project” is based on the famous 1970’s NBC documentary featuring a teacher’s separation of students to demonstrate the effects of “superiority”, thereby promoting racism and rejection. I believe it was called “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” but I may have the title wrong.
I showed the video to my class a few years ago as part of a discussion. It was an amazing documentary and showed clearly how friends can turn on each other simply because the friends had the “wrong” color eyes. Very powerful stuff, and incredibly scary.
Ms. Smallwood should get hold of the video & show that instad of having children act as either Nazis or victims. I’m surprised she got away with it for a couple of years! But at least she had the sense to get parental permission. And what kind of principal allows such a scenario to take place? No wonder kids today can be so disgusting to each other: this is school-sanctioned bullying!