When fifth-grade teacher Barb Vogel told her students at
Highline Community School in Aurora, Colo., that children were being
sold as slaves in the Sudan, they wanted to do something about it.

They
raised money to buy more than 1,000 slaves and set them free, and then
started to raise additional money to buy more.

"Please reconsider,"
begs Stephen Lewis of the United Nations Children's Fund. "If you can
pay for more slaves, undoubtedly more slaves will be provided for you."
Manase Lomole Waya, director of Humanitarian Assistance for South
Sudan, agrees, saying the buyback program "is not eradicating slavery,
it is enhancing it."

Publicity over Highline's efforts have spurred
similar programs in about 100 other schools, leading to dropping prices
for slaves -- showing an excess supply and increasing competition among
slave traders, anti-slavery experts say.

Vogel says she'll let the kids
decide whether to continue, but they don't seem to understand the
concept of supply and demand -- so far, they want to continue the
project. (Denver Post)

Is this really what people meant when they
said schools ought to go back to the basics of the good old days?