Teacher's Use Slavery in Math Problem

[fourstringdrums]

I'm just dumbfounded by the stupidity...of all the examples to come up with, why would they pick those two?

Norcross parents upset by slavery in school math worksheet *| ajc.com

Gwinnett County parents and activists have blasted the school district’s response following reports that students at a Norcross elementary school received a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in 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 staff 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?”

That didn’t go far enough for some parents at the school, where a majority of the students are minorities. They called for an apology and diversity training for the teachers and district officials.

“That’s how people learn from one another and that’s how we all grow,” said Jennifer Falk, a community activist who recently had two children graduate from Gwinnett high schools. “Intentionally or not, this was inappropriate.”

School district officials said teachers were attempting to incorporate history into their third-grade math lessons.

“Clearly, they did not do as good of a job as they should have done,” district spokeswoman Sloan Roach said.

Roach said the school’s principal, Jose DeJesus, was collecting the assignments so they wouldn’t be circulated. She said the teachers were not intentionally trying to offend the students with the questions.

“It was just a poorly written question,” Roach said.

Under district policy, the worksheet should have been reviewed before being handed out to students, but that process was not followed in this situation. District officials said they would work with math teachers to come up with more appropriate questions.

Roach said she wasn’t sure whether Beaver Ridge teachers and staffers had diversity training recently, but she said DeJesus would be open to meeting with parents who had any further questions about the assignments. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the school or district would issue an apology.

Falk said the district needed to do much more to make things right.

“I think the teachers should be reprimanded for using that poor judgment, and an apology should be made,” she said. “But the bigger question is how could something like this happen?”

Parents told Channel 2 Action News, a reporting partner of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that they were shocked that the assignment was dispersed to their children.

“It kind of blew me away,” Christopher Braxton, the father of a Beaver Ridge student, told Channel 2. “I was furious. ... Something like this shouldn’t be embedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade.”

The most recent accountability report for Beaver Ridge, which has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, shows that 62 percent of the students are Hispanic or Latino, 24 percent are black or African-American, and 5 percent are white, with 87 percent of the students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. The school was recently recognized as a Georgia Title I Distinguished School for achieving adequate yearly progress for six straight years.

[Chef FourString]

And these are the people we leave our children with. Unreal. Welcome to the American public school system.

[colcifer]

Meh. This is definitely a "Who thought that was a good idea?" occasion but all things considered, not that bad.

[BassChuck]

Originally Posted by Chef FourString

And these are the people we leave our children with. Unreal. Welcome to the American public school system.

Dude. I've taught public school for over 30 years and never done anything that stupid. I've never met a teacher who did anything that stupid. Was it done? Sure. But to even suggest that all teachers are like that is deeply offensive.

People make mistakes.

[Chef FourString]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

Dude. I've taught public school for over 30 years and never done anything that stupid. I've never met a teacher who did anything that stupid. Was it done? Sure. But to even suggest that all teachers are like that is deeply offensive.

People make mistakes.

I didn't say anything about all teachers. I simply ment that its not a surprise to hear something like this, especially from an American school. Our concerns about education in this country are extremely frightening. I'm sorry you took offence.

[bassybill]

This is stupid beyond belief. But I think it would be unwise to draw any general conclusions about schools and the schools system from the situation. It has to be seen as a gross aberration.

Not enough info to be sure, but it looks to me like someone should lose their job for this.

[LiquidMidnight]

From the sounds of things, it didn't sound like there was malice behind the questions, but yeah, definitely pretty stupid to do.

[Turock]

We should pretend slavery never existed.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by LiquidMidnight

From the sounds of things, it didn't sound like there was malice behind the questions, but yeah, definitely pretty stupid to do.

You don't think the reference to beating slaves was malicious? Genuine question, just asking out of curiosity.

[Turock]

Originally Posted by bassybill

You don't think the reference to beating slaves was malicious? Genuine question, just asking out of curiosity.

It doesn't say "Fredrick" was a slave.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by Turock

It doesn't say "Fredrick" was a slave.

Oh. Well, that's alright then.

[nortonrider]

Originally Posted by bassybill

This is stupid beyond belief. But I think it would be unwise to draw any general conclusions about schools and the schools system from the situation. It has to be seen as a gross aberration.

Not enough info to be sure, but it looks to me like someone should lose their job for this.

you said....
that you think that this is stupid,
that there is not enough info,
and
that it would be unwise to draw any general conclusions.

So then exactly why do you think that someone should lose their job?
That just seems like a knee-jerk response to me.

[jmattbassplaya]

So did the kids actually learn their math?

While I will admit those questions were probably pretty stupid to ask, I can't help but remember that back in elementary school I had many teachers who would try to link topics from one subject to another subject in order to keep us thinking about certain things all day long. For example, if we were discussing the Revolutionary War in history, we would also have a spelling test that week that consisted of words like siege, brigade, garrison, revolution, and other relevant words. I wouldn't be surprised if they were talking about the slave trade and this was an attempt of them to tie those subjects together.

That, or the teacher was just that stupid.

[Schlyder]

Here is something to watch.

Charlotte Iserbyt: The Miseducation of America Part 1-Full - YouTube

[Turock]

Originally Posted by bassybill

Oh. Well, that's alright then.

Right.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by nortonrider

you said....

that you think that this is stupid,
that there is not enough info,
and
that it would be unwise to draw any general conclusions.

So then exactly why do you think that someone should lose their job?
That just seems like a knee-jerk response to me.

In that order?

I understand your question and as I posted I thought it might arise.

To clarify - I think it would be unwise to draw GENERAL conclusions about teachers and schools from this. But it may be the case that in this SPECIFIC instance, someone is badly out of line. Not enough evidence to say for sure at present, though.

I hope you get what I mean now.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by nortonrider

you said....
that you think that this is stupid,
that there is not enough info,
and
that it would be unwise to draw any general conclusions.

That part would be about not judging the entire system on a singular incident.

Originally Posted by nortonrider

So then exactly why do you think that someone should lose their job?
That just seems like a knee-jerk response to me.

A result of the singular incident. Teachers should be able to display a sense of tact and decorum in their job. Enough to be fired? Maybe not. But then again, there are so many teachers out there, they could be easily replaced with someone who hasn't made stupid choices in how they teach.

[john grey]

Something doesn't make sense here. The teacher would know that would cause a stir. Perhaps the teacher is not wrapped that tight or was attempting to do something in a very pathetic way. ANYONE working in a public school would know that's much too slippery territory; something just doesn't seem right.

[nortonrider]

Originally Posted by john grey

Something doesn't make sense here. The teacher would know that would cause a stir. Perhaps the teacher is not wrapped that tight or was attempting to do something in a very pathetic way. ANYONE working in a public school would know that's much too slippery territory; something just doesn't seem right.

agree.

[Tituscrow]

Having been a science teacher for 20 years, working with hundreds of colleagues in several schools, I can say with some confidence that most teachers are decent, honest, hardworking professionals with the interests of their students at heart.

However, there are a few over the years who have made similarly crass, contentious and controversial decisions about subject matter with which they engage students.

Some did this because they were young, inexperienced and made a singular error of judgement from which they learned, reflected upon and moved on.

Others with particularly malicious agendas were soon found out, disciplinary/competency procedures were put in place and they no longer work with children.

Not enough background info on this case to come to a robust opinion, but my hunch is that someone is in for at least a slap on the wrist.