Teaching History Instead of Math

I found this someplace on the web this morning.  I was about to let it slide, but the longer I thought about it, the more irate I became.



It seems some snowflake in Moss Point, Mississippi, normally teaches math, but in honor of Black History Month (designated as February here in the good old U.S. of A. - okay, the shortest month of the year if you're using the Gregorian calendar, and what surprises me is that some group of ill-intentioned society shit-stirrers haven't discovered this and whipped the Loony-Tune-Left into a frenzy), Black History month decided to teach a little history along with math.  Not surprisingly, she really screwed the pooch on this one.

Teacher's powerful slavery lesson for Black History Month goes viral

From the article:
Math teacher Jovan Bradshaw of Magnolia Middle School in Moss Point, Miss., covered her classroom door with bright yellow paper and a message (which she attributed to poet and author the Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen): “Dear Students, they didn’t steal slaves. They stole scientists, doctors, architects, teachers, entrepreneurs, astronomers, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, etc., and made them slaves. Sincerely, your ancestors.”

They being the white privilege straight male citizens of the newly minted United States, who did, in fact, occasionally steal slaves.  Theft isn't a new thing, and although I have no first hand knowledge, I have no reason to believe that slaves were never stolen.  More often than not, slaves were purchased.  The point of origin was Africa, the dark continent.  Various tribes from the interior would raid their neighbors so as to capture slaves and eliminate competition.  The victors of these tribal wars would then sell or trade the slaves to the tribes along the coast, who would in turn sell them to European slavers in ships, who would take the slaves to Europe or the U.S. - anywhere that they could get a good price for them.

As for scientists, doctors, et al., no.  The slaves were from a culture that had no written language and were still at the hunter/gatherer stage in technology.  Take an adult who has lived outside all his life, and natural selection will provide you with a first class woodsman.  But a scientist, a doctor, or an architect?  No.  Doubly so since the slaves we're talking about here came from inferior tribes - they got defeated and captured, remember?

The snowflake continues:

“It all started with this little boy in my class,” Bradshaw told WLOX. “We were talking and he said, ‘Slaves didn’t do much because they couldn’t read or write.’

Which is true.  In fact, teaching a slave to read or write was against the law, and the punishment was significant.  This is doubly true today, because frankly if you're a functional illiterate, you are well and truly screwed.

From teacher:
He kinda caught me off guard. I said, ‘Baby, if I snatched you up and dropped you off in China or Germany or Africa even, you wouldn’t be able to read and write their language either. Does that make you useless or any less educated?’”

In fact it does.  I have good reason to believe that most people who read this incredibly antagonistic blog possess above average intelligence.  That isn't saying a whole lot, but I believe it to be true nonetheless.  Most of the readers likely fall into the bright or very bright range.  That being the case, getting kidnapped and transported to central China would be an interesting experience for a hour or so, but then reality would set in.

Most white people from the U.S. can't speak Chinese at all.  The necessary sounds are beyond them, and even if you learn to speak Mandarin well (for a round eyes) you'll attract a lot of attention.  So yeah, you are not valuable.  Even if you were a neurosurgeon, you couldn't find a hospital or explain what you were, where you wanted to go, or that you were a citizen of the U.S.

Maybe that last is just as well - foreign devil.

Drop you into Germany, and you'd catch on.  German is a Latin based language, and the technology is high.  Hell, you could hike to the border in Germany in a few days time.  But work there?  Maybe.  But you speak no German and you don't know local custom, so whatever job you get will be pretty menial.  Unskilled physical labor, I'm thinking.

Then she drops the 'A' bomb: Africa.  I have some second hand experience with the dark continent, and depending on just where you ended up, your lifespan would be measured in days.  Unless you could find someone who spoke English, you're screwed.  You're not going to learn an African language, and African tribes in general don't have a written language.  No money, no AK-47, no nothing.  You'd probably die of some weird disease within a month.

I'm thinking in terms of adults here.  But a child?  The child becomes a liability at the very best, and short lived slave labor at the worst.  Well, okay, food at the worst.  The Africans will eat anything that doesn't put up much of a fight, and if the natives won't the critters will.

My old pastor and godfather was a missionary in Africa.  The village defended itself against jackals, lions, giant snakes, and if it was poisonous or venomous in any way, be it animal, plant, or other, it's represented in Africa.

We got HIV and Aids from Africa.

What gets to me is that this school teacher is so far away from reality that she's actually defeating the learning process for one student who figured the system out immediately.  If you can't read, you won't amount to anything except a parasite.

What bothers me most is that there is one child who got it right, who showed a spark of brilliance, and got lied to and castigated by a local authority figure.