‘Imagine You Own Slaves’ Homework: Tennessee Teachers Resign

BRENTWOOD, TN — Two Tennessee middle school teachers have resigned amid a fierce backlash over a homework assignment that asked students to imagine their families owned slaves, the superintendent of Williamson County Schools has confirmed. The assignment also asked students to list the expectations they would have of the slaves.

The Sunset Middle School teachers, Susan Best and Kim Best, apologized to students and district patrons after the assignment last week, saying it was “insensitive” and did not reflect the school’s values.

Sunset Middle School Principal Tim Brown also apologized.

Dan Fountain, the brother of a 13-year-old middle school student, shared the homework assignment on Twitter, asking people what they thought of the assignment that had been shared in previous years without complaint.

Read Patch’s original story: Imagine You Owned Slaves: Tennessee Homework Assignment

Mike Looney, the district’s superintendent, told The Tennessean one of the teachers resigned on March 1, and the other on Wednesday.

Fountain told the Tennessean his sister is one of a couple of black students at the school. “It initially made me angry. ...” he said. “I can’t let things like this sit around and slide.”

The Williamson County Schools student body is about 70 percent white.

Besides plantation life, slave codes and “king cotton,” the assignment also touched on topics such topics of immigration, child labor and other sensitive topics, according to Dan Fountain’s Twitter post.

Follow the latest developments on The Tennessean.