Slavery-Themed Math Homework is Never Appropriate (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | "Cross-curricular activity" is an educationally trendy term used to describe the act of carrying a lesson from one school subject over to another subject. It's also the excuse being used by the Gwinnett County, Ga., school district for slavery-themed math homework that was recently assigned to third graders, according ABC News.

Parents of the students assigned the math homework expressed shock over the wording of the questions, which included determining how many beatings "Fred" would get in a week if he received two a day, and how many oranges on a 56-orange tree would eight slaves pick if they each picked an equal amount. According to a spokesperson for the district, the teachers were merely trying to do a cross-curricular activity.

I think the teachers get an F for this one. I can see the point behind the notion of math word problems as a way to enforce the practical application of math facts. I can also -- to a point -- see the reasoning of cross-curricular activity. But slavery questions are not a practical application for building math skills, nor are they an appropriate focus for word problems. Of all the combinations of subjects that a group of teachers could use for cross-cultural lessons, why slavery and math word problems?

Apparently, I'm not the only one that would give these teachers an F. The spokesperson for the district said the district also agreed on the inappropriateness of assignment. Let's hope said teachers have learned their lesson and that they don't try such a stunt again.

I'm rather of the opinion that once was more than enough. Surely someone thought during the planning of this activity that maybe it wasn't appropriate. Yet, they went there anyway, handing out slavery questions to 8-year-olds. One can only imagine what next week's lesson would entail. Hopefully, someone was fired for this.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120108/cm_ac/10806207_slaverythemed_math_homework_is_never_appropriate

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