(In today's Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Gwinnett County parents and activists have blasted the school district's response following reports that students at a Norcross elementary received a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in the word problems.
School district officials said the principal at Beaver Ridge Elementary School will personally work with teachers to come up with more appropriate lessons and will offer more opportunities for the development following the uproar created by the worksheet that included questions such as the following:
"Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"
and
"If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?"
(Can't make this stuff up, ladies and gentlemen)
Comments (9)
Cosider the rejected word problems...
"Two rednecks split an eightball of crank. Billy Ray split his portion with his parole officer. How much crank did the parole office receive for faking Billy Ray's weekly drug test results?"
Posted by John Cox | January 8, 2012 10:52 PM
Posted on January 8, 2012 22:52
Ya can't fix STUPID!
But you can FIRE their asses!
Posted by GarandFan | January 8, 2012 10:53 PM
Posted on January 8, 2012 22:53
...wow...just...wow...
Posted by Steve M | January 8, 2012 10:54 PM
Posted on January 8, 2012 22:54
"Gwinnett County School District officials said teachers were attempting to incorporate history into math lessons. “Teachers were trying to do a cross-curricular activity,” district spokeswoman Sloan Roach told Channel 2. Roach acknowledged the questions gave no context for the issues they raised."
No back-water racist KKK hicks did this - this was in Atlanta.
Posted by Dr. Bob | January 8, 2012 11:17 PM
Posted on January 8, 2012 23:17
Dollars to donuts those tests were pulled out of a 1950s (or earlier) depository by some lazy gold-bricking dumb-a__ NEA lackey who didn't even bother to read them. I'd also bet that the "integrating history" defense is a lame attempt at CYA. Compulsory government education stinks. Let's raise taxes so they can sell us more of it.
On the other hand--& I apologize in advance if this sounds insensitive, but:
I am flat-out fatigued by the psychological bludgeoning we're subjected to over words, & black-market slavery is a reality for too many people (over 25 million--& I seem to recall reports of Planned Parenthood covering up child sex trafficking here).
Posted by Terwiliger | January 9, 2012 1:12 AM
Posted on January 9, 2012 01:12
No excuse for this crap,end of story.
Posted by Rick | January 9, 2012 10:49 AM
Posted on January 9, 2012 10:49
I'm with T regarding the "psychological bludgeoning" but those are ridiculous. I'd guess that they had far more taste in the past than to make word problems about slave beatings, or any beatings for that matter.
It's got to be a parody -- perhaps to engage kids who claimed that being a grade school student is like slavery because you're "forced" to do work without pay, or maybe it's some lefty's attempt at political enlightenment regarding slavery. I'd guess the former.
(1) What was going on in that classroom that made the teacher think this was a good idea? What was the effect on the kids? Aren't these the obvious questions for a reporter to ask?
(2) Given that 40% of word problems are ambiguously written, breeding confusion about math and a greater certainty of its practical irrelevance, and that, on average, it takes 3,141,592 explicitly offensive word problems to fire a public teacher, how long can the teacher continue to write offensive word problems before he is fired, assuming he gives a quiz with 10 problems every week of the school year?
Posted by Zeroth | January 9, 2012 11:18 PM
Posted on January 9, 2012 23:18
Dumb, yes. Insensitive, yes. Clueless, yah shuuure yah betcha.
I sure wouldn't want any of those teachers that came up with that teaching my kids.
Now, I know that integrating various subjects together can actually be a positive cross-learning experience (actually it's been done forever - example - writing a history paper integrates history and composition/writing), but how can you come up with that specific combination and not think people would be offended?
They ought to be fired - for being too stupid to be teaching.
Posted by Dr. Bob | January 10, 2012 12:14 AM
Posted on January 10, 2012 00:14
ZEROTH & DR. BOB ARE 100% CORRECT.
This is indeed an extreme (& bizarre) case. However, this particular case is about ONE school, & more than likely just ONE teacher. The reports make it seem like the administration of an entire school district issued those tests to every school. My read on this is news organizations are sensationalizing a relatively minor thing in order to keep the public in a roil while oligarchs are disassembling the republic. Makes me think of the Caesar "Beware the leader..." quote (except "Beware the media...").
What wears me out are the constant reminders that BHO is pigmentally gifted, & the subsequent charges that MUST be the ONLY reason for disagreeing with him (& the rest of the nut-job Prog-Left) plus all of the frivolous charges of "[insert malady here]-ism".
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - MLK
It can't happen until those who are so concerned that "[because] Barack is black" can see Barack without the demographic qualifier. The far-out Left is crushing The Dream.
I was fizzling towards the end of an insomniac episode & didn't make my point well at all.
Mea maxima culpa.
Posted by Terwiliger | January 10, 2012 1:45 AM
Posted on January 10, 2012 01:45