FTCC's Martha J. Sisk says board decision short-sighted

Optional class role-playing exercise shut down by school board

Article asks why one parent can "stop an entire school from growing"

(link to www.fayobserver.com)

In a Fayetteville Observer article entitled "Censorship lives in Hoke County," retired public school teacher, Martha J. Sisk, who now teaches English at FTCC, criticizes the Hoke County school board’s decision to stop eighth grade teacher Lynda Smallwood’s teaching of prejudice through the use of a role-playing exercise. The class was reading the Diary of Anne Frank and learning about the Holocaust.

Regarding the school board, Sisk wonders, "why did they not just remind the mother that her child could choose not to take part? Sisk asks, "Why stop a creative teacher who was attempting to teach her students a valuable lesson in prejudice, not entirely through reading and testing, but through actions and ideas?"

The article can be viewed at:

(link to www.fayobserver.com)