Learning elementary math from slavery --It just don't add up.

A former colleague of mine posted this newspaper article (from the Atlanta Journal Constitution) on his social site page.  As I read it, I had to shake my head in confusion.  Is this 2012? Are we but a mere week away from the birthday celebration of Atlanta's own champion of multiculturalism, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr?  How does this type of insensitivity makes its way into a 3rd grade math classroom in Georgia.  Mind you, Georgia has some of the ugliest history concerning  African slavery in the United States!!

 

Now here's some NEW AGE MATH! 

(Multiculturalism/Diversity) - (Cultural etiquette - Cross cultural communication) =  One Embarrassing HOT MESS!!                                 

ANY QUESTIONS!?!

Now here's the article (see below)

Norcross parents upset by slavery in school math worksheet

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A math worksheet for third graders that used examples of slavery in word problems has angered some parents at a Norcross elementary school, Channel 2 Action News reports.

One word problem stated, "Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" Another said, "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”

Such questions can evoke bitter memories in Georgia, where African Americans were enslaved for generations until the Civil War and the elimination of slavery.

"It kind of blew me away,” Christopher Braxton, a parent of a child at Beaver Ridge Elementary School, told Channel 2. "I was furious. … Something like this shouldn't be embedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade."

Another Beaver Ridge parent, Terrance Barnett, said, "I’m having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slave or beatings is in a math problem. So that hurts.”

Gwinnett County School District officials said teachers were attempting to incorporate history into math lessons.

“Teachers were trying to do a cross-curricular activity,” district spokeswoman Sloan Roach told Channel 2.

Roach acknowledged the questions gave no context for the issues they raised.

"We understand that there are concerns about these questions, and we agree that these questions were not appropriate,” she said.

Parents told Channel 2 that the school’s principal was collecting the assignments and would shred them so they wouldn’t be circulated.

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