New York school assigns racist word-problems to fourth-graders

[Luddly Neddite]

New York school assigns racist word-problems to fourth-graders - Salon.com

“Slavery Word Problems Homework”

“In a slave ship, there can be 3,799 slaves. One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?” and, “One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?”

This is just mind boggling.

Okay, rw nutters, bring on your excuses.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I think you Liberals call that "Culturally Responsive Instruction"?

Culturally Responsive Instruction

 

[Quantum Windbag]

New York school assigns racist word-problems to fourth-graders - Salon.com

“Slavery Word Problems Homework”

“In a slave ship, there can be 3,799 slaves. One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?” and, “One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?”

This is just mind boggling.

Okay, rw nutters, bring on your excuses.

It is New York, and a union school, the left wing is showing its true colors.

 

[squeeze berry]

New York school assigns racist word-problems to fourth-graders - Salon.com

“Slavery Word Problems Homework”

“In a slave ship, there can be 3,799 slaves. One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?” and, “One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?”

This is just mind boggling.

Okay, rw nutters, bring on your excuses.

this one is easy.

It's a LW nuttter math problem afro-centric style

Lugnuts should get aboard the

 

[S.J.]

Excuses? I think YOU are the one that needs the excuses. Conservatives don't control public schools.

 

[Rozman]

New York school assigns racist word-problems to fourth-graders - Salon.com

“Slavery Word Problems Homework”

“In a slave ship, there can be 3,799 slaves. One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?” and, “One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?”

This is just mind boggling.

Okay, rw nutters, bring on your excuses.

Fourth graders....I'm sure that they know the proper way to put on a condom...

 

[there4eyeM]

Bizarre.

 

[novasteve]

PS how is that racist? It doesn't mention any race, just slaves. Jews had been enslaved multiple times in history. The nazis transported jewish and polish slave labor by boats, in fact the 2nd largest maritime loss of life in history was when the RAF sank the Cap Arcona which was filled with slave laborers, Something like 10,000 died.

 

[Mr. H.]

Here ya go, Luddnutty... maybe you meant to post this:

Stock Market Math | Activity | Education.com

Explain that when a person buys a share of stock in a company, they buy a piece of the company and become a “shareholder.” Each share, or piece, of the company costs money and when the company makes money, so do the shareholders. Next, direct your child to msn.com. Enter the symbol for the stock (or enter the company’s name to get the symbol). Show her the cost (value) of one share of stock. Next, click on the “intraday” graph which shows the daily activity of the stock and how the value can quickly change. Click on the 5 day, 10 day, monthly, and yearly charts and read the graphs with your child. Note the changes in the stock’s price over the different time periods.

 

[wavingrl]

<What&#8217;s even more stunning about the story is that the same set of questions had already gone home to a different fourth-grade class in January, via a teacher identified in the New York Daily News as Jane Youn. It turns out the students themselves had come up with the questions as part of their course work on slavery. Their East Side school, by the way, has a predominantly white student body &#8211; only 5 percent of the children are African-American.

The fiasco has echoes of a similar case last year, when an Atlanta-area third-grade class was asked math questions like &#8220;If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?&#8221; After the story made national headlines, the assigning teacher resigned.>

--I thought I had heard a similar story before.
--The kids constructed the problem as part of their course work on slavery.

--Predominantly white school.

This is really beyond belief. The sort of discussion on slavery that could result in math problems like this would also bear further investigation.

Letting my imagination wander far and wide---

A very liberal teacher felt the students should be fully informed on the horrors of slavery?

It is possible.

eta: Integrated learning that went awry.
<In both cases, the faulty logic behind the questions was the pursuit of integrated learning. Used wisely and sensitively, it&#8217;s an otherwise useful teaching tool &#8211; taking a history course as the starting point for a math lesson, using a reading assignment to explore science.>

Possibly they worked in small groups and weren't carefully supervised. A quick--'No, that is not the sort of problem I will accept--try again' --could have prevented this dilemma.

'Sensitivity training for the whole school'.

It also sounds like they need to modify their approach to integrated learning. Who knows what sort of curricular objectives they may have in this district. Some sort of supervision/direction from a teacher is needed--that much is clear.

 

[TruthSeeker56]

The bottom line is that the election is over, so the 90+% liberal black voters have been sent back to the plantation by the Democrats, until they are needed again in two years.

In the meantime, it's back to business-as-usual for the liberals........promoting racism, demeaning blacks and other minorities, and promoting the MYTH that it's the CONSERVATIVES who are racist.

 

[Merchant_of_Meh]

Yeah, that's not racist.

A wee bit insensitive? Absolutely.

 

[depotoo]

had ANT FArm on from the DIsney channel a couple of days ago and I believe it was one of the kids having a dream as though they were back in time before the civil rights movement and showed Blacks being kept out of Night Clubs for anything but to entertain. Then one of the entertainers said that is not right, etc.
I understand it is Black history month and all that but to me this played out as to widen the gap. To very young kids that, hopefully, are unaware at their young age the ghosts of the pasts, if a parent wasn't there watching, I can't imagine what those kids must have thought was going on. I turned it off before it was over as I thought it very inappropriate for kids watching alone. Many kids do sit in front of TV watching Disney without their parents there to be able to explain what it was actually all about. I was very disappointed in Disney for this.

 

[wavingrl]

had ANT FArm on from the DIsney channel a couple of days ago and I believe it was one of the kids having a dream as though they were back in time before the civil rights movement and showed Blacks being kept out of Night Clubs for anything but to entertain. Then one of the entertainers said that is not right, etc.
I understand it is Black history month and all that but to me this played out as to widen the gap. To very young kids that, hopefully, are unaware at their young age the ghosts of the pasts, if a parent wasn't there watching, I can't imagine what those kids must have thought was going on. I turned it off before it was over as I thought it very inappropriate for kids watching alone. Many kids do sit in front of TV watching Disney without their parents there to be able to explain what it was actually all about. I was very disappointed in Disney for this.

Who knows what the 'truth' is.

It sounds like to me that they were working independently or possibly in small groups and came up with this on their own--I believe it was a homework assignment. Knowing nothing more than what it said in the article about this school--East side, majority white--I inferred that it may be an affluent area and further inferred that non-traditional strategies and techniques might be utilized. Dangerous assumptions.

I think the article also mentioned something about teachers having too much administrative work to be able to be more involved in teaching. I didn't think much of that --fwiw.

At any rate it would seem that the more relevant facts about black history and civil rights got lost. Adult guidance would have been helpful it seems to me.

So much 'harsh reality'/drama is dumped out via TV and the internet--it becomes a 'job' to find better options.

 

[depotoo]

had ANT FArm on from the DIsney channel a couple of days ago and I believe it was one of the kids having a dream as though they were back in time before the civil rights movement and showed Blacks being kept out of Night Clubs for anything but to entertain. Then one of the entertainers said that is not right, etc.
I understand it is Black history month and all that but to me this played out as to widen the gap. To very young kids that, hopefully, are unaware at their young age the ghosts of the pasts, if a parent wasn't there watching, I can't imagine what those kids must have thought was going on. I turned it off before it was over as I thought it very inappropriate for kids watching alone. Many kids do sit in front of TV watching Disney without their parents there to be able to explain what it was actually all about. I was very disappointed in Disney for this.

Who knows what the 'truth' is.

It sounds like to me that they were working independently or possibly in small groups and came up with this on their own--I believe it was a homework assignment. Knowing nothing more than what it said in the article about this school--East side, majority white--I inferred that it may be an affluent area and further inferred that non-traditional strategies and techniques might be utilized. Dangerous assumptions.

I think the article also mentioned something about teachers having too much administrative work to be able to be more involved in teaching. I didn't think much of that --fwiw.

At any rate it would seem that the more relevant facts about black history and civil rights got lost. Adult guidance would have been helpful it seems to me.

So much 'harsh reality'/drama is dumped out via TV and the internet--it becomes a 'job' to find better options.

Yep, exactly my point with the tv show as well. Adult supervision should be there for discussing things of this sort - not just randomly thrown out there for the kids to deal with on their own. What type of statement does that make? Really makes me wonder.

 

[wavingrl]

had ANT FArm on from the DIsney channel a couple of days ago and I believe it was one of the kids having a dream as though they were back in time before the civil rights movement and showed Blacks being kept out of Night Clubs for anything but to entertain. Then one of the entertainers said that is not right, etc.
I understand it is Black history month and all that but to me this played out as to widen the gap. To very young kids that, hopefully, are unaware at their young age the ghosts of the pasts, if a parent wasn't there watching, I can't imagine what those kids must have thought was going on. I turned it off before it was over as I thought it very inappropriate for kids watching alone. Many kids do sit in front of TV watching Disney without their parents there to be able to explain what it was actually all about. I was very disappointed in Disney for this.

Who knows what the 'truth' is.

It sounds like to me that they were working independently or possibly in small groups and came up with this on their own--I believe it was a homework assignment. Knowing nothing more than what it said in the article about this school--East side, majority white--I inferred that it may be an affluent area and further inferred that non-traditional strategies and techniques might be utilized. Dangerous assumptions.

I think the article also mentioned something about teachers having too much administrative work to be able to be more involved in teaching. I didn't think much of that --fwiw.

At any rate it would seem that the more relevant facts about black history and civil rights got lost. Adult guidance would have been helpful it seems to me.

So much 'harsh reality'/drama is dumped out via TV and the internet--it becomes a 'job' to find better options.

Yep, exactly my point with the tv show as well. Adult supervision should be there for discussing things of this sort - not just randomly thrown out there for the kids to deal with on their own. What type of statement does that make? Really makes me wonder.

I believe the teacher has been fired and in this case I support the decision.

off the top of my head--ships--fairly easy to integrate math and history. I also know that any number of resources are available online for teaching everything. A lot more and a lot better could have been done.

 

[Esmeralda]

New York school assigns racist word-problems to fourth-graders - Salon.com

&#8220;Slavery Word Problems Homework&#8221;

&#8220;In a slave ship, there can be 3,799 slaves. One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?&#8221; and, &#8220;One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?&#8221;

This is just mind boggling.

Okay, rw nutters, bring on your excuses.

It is New York, and a union school, the left wing is showing its true colors.

Nonsense. This is about the judgment of a couple of misguided and obtuse teachers. it has nothing to do with right wing or left wing.

 

[S.J.]

New York school assigns racist word-problems to fourth-graders - Salon.com

This is just mind boggling.

Okay, rw nutters, bring on your excuses.

It is New York, and a union school, the left wing is showing its true colors.

Nonsense. This is about the judgment of a couple of misguided and obtuse teachers. it has nothing to do with right wing or left wing.

Bullshit, it has everything to do with the left-wing.

 

[Esmeralda]

It is New York, and a union school, the left wing is showing its true colors.

Nonsense. This is about the judgment of a couple of misguided and obtuse teachers. it has nothing to do with right wing or left wing.

Bullshit, it has everything to do with the left-wing.

No. This has nothing to do with any 'wing.' This is not a political issue. This topic does not belong in 'current events,' nor does it belong in the racial issues or political thread. This topic belongs in the education forum. It is about the poor judgment of a couple of teachers. It is an unfortunate event. I wouldn't fire the teachers. They made a mistake and need to be censured for it and guided to not repeat such a thing. It is about poor judgment, period. We read about teachers doing amazingingly stupid/foolish things. It happens in many different ways. We act like teachers are not supposed to make mistakes, but the truth is everyone makes mistakes, sometimes really horrendous ones. However most teachers are intelligent people doing a good job. The times when one makes a really foolish mistake like this, we hear about it and make a huge to-do about it. Firing her/him is going too far. It should be a 'lesson' learned instead. This teacher was probably fired because the media made such an issue of it.

But this a political issue, a partisan one? Absolutely not. It is really tiresome that people try to make every issue on these boards about right or left, liberal or conservative, white race versus black race, etc. Life is not that simplistic.

 

[S.J.]

Nonsense. This is about the judgment of a couple of misguided and obtuse teachers. it has nothing to do with right wing or left wing.

Bullshit, it has everything to do with the left-wing.

No. This has nothing to do with any 'wing.' This is not a political issue. This topic does not belong in 'current events,' nor does it belong in the racial issues or political thread. This topic belongs in the education forum. It is about the poor judgment of a couple of teachers. It is an unfortunate event. I wouldn't fire the teachers. They made a mistake and need to be censured for it and guided to not repeat such a thing. It is about poor judgment, period. We read about teachers doing amazingingly stupid/foolish things. It happens in many different ways. We act like teachers are not supposed to make mistakes, but the truth is everyone makes mistakes, sometimes really horrendous ones. However most teachers are intelligent people doing a good job. The times when one makes a really foolish mistake like this, we hear about it and make a huge to-do about it. Firing her/him is going too far. It should be a 'lesson' learned instead. This teacher was probably fired because the media made such an issue of it.

But this a political issue, a partisan one? Absolutely not. It is really tiresome that people try to make every issue on these boards about right or left, liberal or conservative, white race versus black race, etc. Life is not that simplistic.

You're so full of shit. 99% of teachers are left-wing fucking liberals and you're too disingenuous to admit that this is typical of the mentality of the public school system. I love how you libs try to backtrack when one of your own goes off the scale.