The Jefferson Road Elementary School in Pittsford New York has issued an apology after a fourth grade worksheet on slavery says slaves agreed to work for colonists in exchange for a trip to America.
According to WROC, the worksheet, asked several questions about slavery, one of which was “Why did slaves come to America?”
A fill-in-the-blank answer was provided that read “As an exchange for the trip to America, African Americans agreed to work for colonists for _____ years, but then were kept as slaves.”
District officials say the worksheet which came from an online resource called “Classroom Nook” was part of one lesson used by a first year teacher and limited to use in one class at Jefferson Road Elementary. The program was not approved by the district.
“We immediately met with the staff members involved in this lesson and have taken steps to remedy the situation. This will include a re-teaching of the topic of slavery during Colonial Times and removing this worksheet from student notebooks while providing them with correct, factual information on this subject. Furthermore, we are working with our fourth grade teachers across the district to be sure this worksheet is not being used in any other classrooms,” Pittsford Central School District Superintendent of Schools Michael Pero said in a statement.
Pero said the worksheet was brought to their attention by a parent and they’ve since apologized to that parent and “have also reached out to parents of the entire class to share this error and apologize for it.”
