There's no reason kids can't learn the song -- in context. No context was provided in this situation.

I tried earlier to make the point that very likely no one in this situation knew the origins of the song, whether it was originally "written" or "collected," whether it was a minstrel song or a prison work song, etc. The African-American family felt the song perpetuated a racial stereotype and degraded the slave experience. The school personnel didn't think about it at all, and didn't do any research after the protest was made.

That would all be helpful but ... as you can see, we don't have that kind of thinking here.

This is not a sophisticated venue! Schools use folk songs in choral settings all the time. I have never heard of a choir director who saw them as history or folk expression, they are just a piece of music in this context and are not used as a vehicle for teaching history -- in the chorus classes, at least. If it had been put in its historical context in the first place, maybe the African-American family would have felt differently.

The question of whether an African-American originated the song really is way off to the side. The question never came up and probably no one involved thought to ask where the song came from.

(Remember, people like us who pay this much attention to folk music are very rare. That's why Mudcat has been so valuable and important to us all. We can find each other.)

The underlying question of why Americans don't learn about folk music, and worse, don't teach the history of slavery in a deeper, more thoughtful context, or try to teach that it has left very painful emotional baggage that people still deal with, belongs below the line, right next to "how has the world gotten dumbed down so far in half a century?"

I wish it were different. But that is up to the history and other teachers and won't be changed in a chorus class. I think the family did well to make a strong statement by taking their kid out of the class. They might have done it all better, but this way at least people are thinking a little bit more on the subject.

Maybe they'll even care enough to find out where the song came from. And learn that cotton picking was not exclusively a slave task. And learn more of the history of farm workers. Maybe.