By Jessica Kelmon, Associate Editor
Making math fun can be a tall order. With kids complaining that math is boooooooring (and parents often exacerbating the problem by openly agreeing), it’s a tough, underappreciated job. So where’s an enterprising, hardworking teacher to turn for resources?
One third grade teacher at a DC charter school turned to a questionable homemade worksheet provider and printed out some eyebrow-raising word problems. Or should I say problematic? Or worrisome? No, let’s call a spade a spade: these questions are downright scary.
Here’s just one of the 20 problems given to a class full of 8- and 9-year olds:
“Tilda Tiger had many hungry children to feed on Thanksgiving Day. She caught 169 Africans, 526 Americans and 196 Indians. She then put the people equally into 9 enormous ovens to bake. How many desperate people were in each oven?”
When I was 8, this would’ve made me cry. And if I read this right before going to sleep, I’d have had nightmares for sure. Grade school should be a cannibalism-free zone. And don’t even get me started on the weird association between Thanksgiving and cooking people. (If you see the humor in this, a dcist blogger wrote a pretty funny account of this (now ex-) teacher’s complete misstep.)
This surprising lack of sound judgment before doling out homework isn’t an isolated incident. An elementary school teacher in Georgia recently sent home racist math problems about slavery, including these offending questions:
“Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how many would each slave pick?”
“If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”
In both of these cases, the schools reacted immediately and took steps to remedy the situation. In the former, the teacher was fired and the principal made it clear that the problems are completely out of line. In the latter, a spokesperson for the district explained that it was a poorly-explained, misguided attempt to have their math homework reinforce the social studies unit the class was working on. “We agree these questions were not appropriate,” the spokeswoman said. What’s more, the vice principal said the questions were shredded to prevent further use or circulation.
I assume this doesn't happen often. But does it? Have questionable assignments popped out of your child’s backpack – and if so, what did you do about it?