I think this demonstrates laziness and poor judgment rather than racist views. As a parent, I'd question the caliber of teachers that are struggling so hard to incorporate themes that they think its' okay to make an offhand reference to slavery in this way. It just seems super lazy and not even contextual at all. There does not seem to be a real incorporation of a theme here, rather than just someone filling in the blanks with lazy references to a topic being discussed in another class.

Our local school is a STEM school and they do this all the time. The theme is "animals" and the math questions will all incorporate animals. Sure, why not, but I think that kind of misses the point of incorporating a theme, it's just incorporating words. Seems lazy even when you DON'T add in a highly emotional subject like slavery, and refer to it in a decontextualized, off-hand matter.

A true incorporation would have had the kids discussing the economics of slavery, how some people knew it was wrong but the economics were such that people turned a blind eye to their own moral compass. But this just seems like really uninspired teaching more than anything else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw an interview with the principal who said it was part of a cross-curriculum exercise. The newscast also interviewed the two black dads who complained about the math homework, and they still seemed angry. The principal admitted it looked racist out of the context of the social studies lesson. Lesson learned?

How many teachers and school administrators signed off on these questions?

A cross-curriculum exercise? That is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time. If they do a unit on prisoners and incarceration, will they have word questions about "if Inmate X is anally raped three times a week..."? Or for a health class unit on the digestive system, "Johnny takes a dump six times a week..."? I'm surprised only two parents complained.

Terrible, but this made me snort my coffee!

I'm sorry, but any teacher or administrator who could read those questions and still present them to children really, REALLY needs to go back for updated ethics and diversity training.

In this day and age, that's just heinous that someone would consider those to be appropriate topics outside of a class specifically teaching about slavery. These questions makes it seem normal and acceptable for that type of thinking and that creates unspoken stereotypes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw an interview with the principal who said it was part of a cross-curriculum exercise. The newscast also interviewed the two black dads who complained about the math homework, and they still seemed angry. The principal admitted it looked racist out of the context of the social studies lesson. Lesson learned?

How many teachers and school administrators signed off on these questions?

A cross-curriculum exercise? That is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time. If they do a unit on prisoners and incarceration, will they have word questions about "if Inmate X is anally raped three times a week..."? Or for a health class unit on the digestive system, "Johnny takes a dump six times a week..."? I'm surprised only two parents complained.

Anonymous wrote:I saw an interview with the principal who said it was part of a cross-curriculum exercise. The newscast also interviewed the two black dads who complained about the math homework, and they still seemed angry. The principal admitted it looked racist out of the context of the social studies lesson. Lesson learned?

How many teachers and school administrators signed off on these questions?

I saw an interview with the principal who said it was part of a cross-curriculum exercise. The newscast also interviewed the two black dads who complained about the math homework, and they still seemed angry. The principal admitted it looked racist out of the context of the social studies lesson. Lesson learned?

Oh so all the suffering the slaves took will suddenly disappear if we stop talking about it?

Weird!

Even if it was an attempt to be cross curricular with social studies I still think it is unacceptable.

As for the SAT troll - they post that in every thread and never back it up.

Anonymous wrote:Not true, pp

Ignore 10:35.

The PP is limited, as s/he seems to post the same one-liner under many educational threads.

It's become comical - at the one-liner's expense, that is.

Not true, pp

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, my first thought was: I wonder if they are learning about slavery in social studies and are doing a cross-curricular thing, which is apparently what happened. HOWEVER, there should have been some kind of explanation to the parents or warning, or something to explain what was going on. Further, the wording of the questions seems too casual-if I were doing something incorporating slavery or another sensitive topic, I would certainly word my math problems in a such a way that it appeared that it was a historical question, or tied in with another curriculum. This makes it look like it's just another question.

And the beating question is just odd.

I am the OP - teacher, too.

Even if this math is part of an interdisciplinary unit, it's a stretch to put it mildly. To minimize the atrocities of slavery by creating a word problem using beatings and picking cotton is deplorable! What were they thinking?

pp here, and I completely agree. I was just thinking how much the media LOVES to dramatize these things (which really need no more drama involved). The entire article makes it seem like the math teacher just decided to write some word problems about beatings and slaves just for the hell of it. I found that somewhat hard to believe, and so figured it had to do with a cross-curricular project. That being said, it's still reprehensible that it is treated so casually in these word problems. I agree, what was this teacher thinking?!

Teachers are among those who receive the lowest SAT scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, my first thought was: I wonder if they are learning about slavery in social studies and are doing a cross-curricular thing, which is apparently what happened. HOWEVER, there should have been some kind of explanation to the parents or warning, or something to explain what was going on. Further, the wording of the questions seems too casual-if I were doing something incorporating slavery or another sensitive topic, I would certainly word my math problems in a such a way that it appeared that it was a historical question, or tied in with another curriculum. This makes it look like it's just another question.

And the beating question is just odd.

I am the OP - teacher, too.

Even if this math is part of an interdisciplinary unit, it's a stretch to put it mildly. To minimize the atrocities of slavery by creating a word problem using beatings and picking cotton is deplorable! What were they thinking?

pp here, and I completely agree. I was just thinking how much the media LOVES to dramatize these things (which really need no more drama involved). The entire article makes it seem like the math teacher just decided to write some word problems about beatings and slaves just for the hell of it. I found that somewhat hard to believe, and so figured it had to do with a cross-curricular project. That being said, it's still reprehensible that it is treated so casually in these word problems. I agree, what was this teacher thinking?!

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, my first thought was: I wonder if they are learning about slavery in social studies and are doing a cross-curricular thing, which is apparently what happened. HOWEVER, there should have been some kind of explanation to the parents or warning, or something to explain what was going on. Further, the wording of the questions seems too casual-if I were doing something incorporating slavery or another sensitive topic, I would certainly word my math problems in a such a way that it appeared that it was a historical question, or tied in with another curriculum. This makes it look like it's just another question.

And the beating question is just odd.

I am the OP - teacher, too.

Even if this math is part of an interdisciplinary unit, it's a stretch to put it mildly. To minimize the atrocities of slavery by creating a word problem using beatings and picking cotton is deplorable! What were they thinking?

As a teacher, my first thought was: I wonder if they are learning about slavery in social studies and are doing a cross-curricular thing, which is apparently what happened. HOWEVER, there should have been some kind of explanation to the parents or warning, or something to explain what was going on. Further, the wording of the questions seems too casual-if I were doing something incorporating slavery or another sensitive topic, I would certainly word my math problems in a such a way that it appeared that it was a historical question, or tied in with another curriculum. This makes it look like it's just another question.

And the beating question is just odd.

http://news.yahoo.com/fred-got-two-beatings-per-day-homework-asks-230717586--abc-news.html

Third graders in in Gwinnett County, Ga., were given math homework Wednesday that asked questions about slavery and beatings.