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South Dakota teachers scramble for dollar bills in demeaning game
Date Added: December 13, 2021 02:02:56 PM
Author: Sutra Web Directory
Category: Education
 
A competition pitting 10 teachers against each other to scramble for dollar bills to fund school supplies in a city in South Dakota has been described as “demeaning” and drawn comparisons with the Netflix hit series Squid Game.

The local newspaper the Argus Leader reported $5,000 (£3,770) in single dollar bills were laid out on the ice skating rink during the Sioux Falls Stampede hockey game on Saturday night, and the teachers from nearby schools competed to grab as many as possible in less than five minutes.

Footage of the competition that went viral on social media showed teachers stuffing the notes down their jumpers and into hats while the audience cheered.

The money was reportedly donated by CU Mortgage Direct to fund teaching supplies and classroom repairs.

“With everything that has gone on for the last couple of years with teachers and everything, we thought it was an awesome group thing to do for the teachers,” Ryan Knudson, a marketing spokesperson for CU Mortgage Direct, told the Argus Leader.

The American Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten, tweeted that the display was demeaning. “This just feels demeaning … teachers shouldn’t have to dash for dollars for classroom supplies,” she said. No doubt people probably intended it to be fun, but from the outside it feels terrible.”

On social media the “dash for cash” footage was described as “humiliating” and “dystopian”. Some people likened the footage to scenes from Squid Game or the Hunger Games franchise.

The teachers involved in the competition appreciated the cash and said they planned to use it to buy flexible seating, such as standing desks or wobble chairs, or document cameras so they could upload lessons online, the Argus Leader reported.

“I think it’s really cool when the community offers an opportunity like this for things that educators a lot of times pay out of pocket for,” Alexandria Kuyper, a fifth-grade teacher at Discovery elementary school said.