…allegedly at an elementary school in Georgia. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the headline to the story: “Slavery Examples Used n Georgia School Upsets Parents.” So I had to read the article and, sure enough, there was a serious issue. The math problems being used by the elementary school are very inappropriate, in fact they are outrageous. Here are a couple of third grade math examples:
"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?"
I will post the link to the article below. On top of the fact that these questions are being used, the parents are upset at the way the issue is being handled. What was the rational behind these seemingly blatant racist math problems? They claim it’s part of a cross-cultural approached to teaching, so that lessons in history are worked into the math problems. But, I have to ask, are the educators in Georgia really that dense? If teachers there think questions like these are appropriate, shouldn’t they go back to school? The principal explains it’s a matter of poorly worded questions and from now on they will go over work sheets to make sure the questions are not offensive. Am I crazy, or shouldn’t teachers know better?
And when teachers, who are supposed to be educated, cannot see a problem with posing such questions to third graders, how can we expect to ever eradicate racism in this country? All I can do is shake my head.
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/08/examples-of-slavery-in-school-worksheet_n_1192512.html?ref=education&icid=maing-grid7%7Caim%7Cdl15%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D125886
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