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It seems like at least once a year, a school or even an entire school district apologizes for a racist lesson gone wrong. This time around, Union County Public Schools in North Carolina is in the hot seat after a group of fourth-grade students was tasked with developing social media hashtags that people may have tweeted during the Civil War.
Inspired by the lesson, fourth-graders at Waxhaw Elementary School made up tweets saying things like Slavery Forever and Slavery for Life.
Charlotte-based Fox 46 reported one student used the handle @dontstopslavery made a tweet that said “you may not agree with slavery but I do and I’m honest about it. #Slaveryforlife.”
Another student tweeted about not wanting to leave the county and staying put with their slaves using the hashtag #SLAVERYFOREVER.
It is unclear what context, if any, the students were given with this assignment. But the tweets were posted on the class wall and later highlighted on the school’s official Facebook page. There were no anti-slavery tweets highlighted according to news reports.
Staff apologized after the story made the news.
This is a clear example of the importance of intent versus impact. Regardless of the school or teacher’s intent, the impact was children not learning the right lessons from the presented curriculum and furthering misunderstanding of a critical time in American history.
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