Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Math Across the Curriculum in Georgia

A Georgia elementary school sent home worksheets with questions like this:

Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?

If Frederick got 2 beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week? 2 weeks?

Frederick had 2 baskets filled with cotton. If each basket held 5 pounds, how many pounds did he have all together?

The next one I actually like:

Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for voting for President. She only had $25, how much more did she need to pay the fine?

After I saw the Susan B. Anthony question, I realized that "Frederick" in the problems above was probably meant to be Frederick Douglass. Right?

How did these questions get sent home with the kids with no-one at the school saying "Wait a minute! This could cause offense!" It's mind-boggling.

Happy Martin Luther King Day, everyone!

3 comments:

  1. Suburban Chicken FarmerJanuary 11, 2012 at 8:51 PM

    Dumb.
    Off Topic but weird enough to mention-

    one of the adverts sponsoring this article starts like this "Strange Fruit Burns Fat"

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't BELIEVE those questions. The Onion would not publish those. You know, even old cycic me, can't keep up.... It's shocking to see such ideas introduced as normal...Is this an urban legend? I find them hard to believe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I saw first saw this report, I thought it was the Onion. But apparently it's for real! People are amazingly clueless.

    ReplyDelete