As if this news isn't shocking and abhorrent enough, I think the person who wrote these questions needs to be identified. That seems to me to be a basic journalistic purpose, to get to the bottom of ugly situations and demand accountability.

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The mind reels at stupid shit people can come up with. There seems to be no limit.

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Perfect example of how little sensibility it takes to become a teacher at a public school these days.

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I agree that the questions are absurd, but I don't get how they are patently offensive. Is it the mere mention of slavery or the fact that slavery is mentioned without context?

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yeah i don't see this as all that offensive either. i can see how some people could get offended but if it's cross curricular it makes more sense

getting kids to calculate weekly beatings or daily workload reinforces how terrible it was to be a slave

"Perfect example of how little sensibility it takes to become a teacher at a public school these days."

you have no idea what you're talking about. you're just using this as an excuse to take cheap political shots because that's the best nonsense comment you can come up with

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"This outrages me because it just lets me know that there's still racists," said Stephanie Jones, whose child is a student at the school.

"Something like that shouldn't be imbedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade," parent Terrance Barnett told WSB-TV. "I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts."

these parents are stupid and knee jerky

it's ok to learn about slavery in history class but not five minutes later in math class? how is it racist to talk about how badly blacks were treated as slaves? nobody should ever learn about slavery in public school, according to terrance barnett

and some cross curricular math problems are what informed stephanie jones that racism is still alive? what the hell planet is she from

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if you can't explain slavery to an eight year old you're a shitty parent

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How about some along the lines of:
200lbs of hydocyanide is required per 1000 jews, Aushwitz had 250,000 jews, how much hydrocyanide was required to poison them all?

Georgia lost 25% of its male population in a losing effort to protect slavery, there were initially 1,500,000 million males, prewar in GA, how many survived?

The average 50 year old living Gwinett only has 40% of their real teeth remaining, human adults have 32 teeth, how many does the average person in Gwinett have?

Incest is 300% the national average in our school district, the national avg. is 1 per 100,000 persons, what is the rate in our district?


Sorry, but this is all just wrong. I seriously doubt it was put in the right context, and if anything some people probably got a good laugh out of a tragic chapter in our history.

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Beaver Ridge School on Beaver Ruin Road. That's my exit. Sums up my life.

I know the neighborhood very well. Word problems should be along the lines of...

"Paco dug 3 bushels of Vidalia onions...." or "Fernando unloaded four pallets of sheetrock...."

Just kidding. Cross curriculum studies are great but math crossed with science and English crossed with social studies makes a lot more sense. Slavery should be discussed but in math class? In this hyper sensitive age? Just asking for irate parents.

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It took 100 Chinamen 10 days to complete 1 mile of the First Transcontinental Railroad. How many miles can the Chinamen complete in two thirty-day months?

The Birmingham Metro Bus #29 had 75 seats in the front of the bus for Whites at capacity and 15 seats in the back of the bus for Blacks at capacity. If there at 12 stops to the final destination and each stop picks up a white woman, how many blacks will be seated at their destination?

Three percent of Planned Parenthood's annual budget funded 368 abortions. What is Planned Parenthood's annual budget?

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"I seriously doubt it was put in the right context,"

unfortunately we have no way of knowing because journalism is hard

it's a lot easier to quote outraged parents and completely ignore whether or not the math problems in question were contextualized

oh hey check it out here's the state third grade curriculum framework

https://www.georgiastandards.org/standards…

page 19: third graders learn about frederick douglass and teachers are expected to "Explain social barriers, restrictions, and obstacles that these historical figures had to overcome and describe how they overcame them."

here's gwinnett's specific framework for douglass

http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/aks.nsf/9bc2…

"Indicators of Achievement:
34b - describe how place (physical and cultural) impacted the life of Frederick Douglass,
34c - describe how Frederick Douglass adapted to and was influenced by his environment,
34e - describe how the region in which Frederick Douglass lived affected his life and impacted his cultural identification"

what did douglass get up to in his lifetime? how did his environment impact him and form his thinking?

"In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh after a dispute ("[A]s a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass wrote). Dissatisfied with Douglass, Thomas Auld sent him to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker." He whipped Douglass regularly. The sixteen-year-old Douglass was nearly broken psychologically by his ordeal under Covey, but he finally rebelled against the beatings and fought back. After losing a physical confrontation with Douglass, Covey never tried to beat him again."

oh dear. maybe the lesson that we're teaching kids is that slavery was horrible?

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"Three percent of Planned Parenthood's annual budget funded 368 abortions. What is Planned Parenthood's annual budget?"

their budget is 12,266 and 2/3 abortions

reminds me i need to donate more abortions this year (this is a setup about my posting for my fans in the audience)

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if i can google up context for these questions in five minutes, what's the excuse of all the outrage-profiteering 'journalists' who covet pageviews more than reporting?

if a poorly sourced article with one outraged parent generates $10 in advertising revenue and four shares on blog affiliates, how much revenue is generated by three outraged parents? how many shares are generated?

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What I find amusing about this is the implied assumption that this was written by some stupid white racist in Gwinnett County. When in fact it was almost certainly written by some PhD who is in fact far more liberal than any of the posters here feigning outrage.
I agree they are stupid questions. But I'm willing to bet that the author accomplished his cynical goal of creating moral outrage and some headlines to remind the "enlightened" how stupid we southerns are.

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"When in fact it was almost certainly written by some PhD who is in fact far more liberal than any of the posters here feigning outrage."

haha no, it was written by an underpaid teacher with a certificate

p.s. i'm the most liberal person here and i think this is stupid

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actually this is my day off but thanks for playing

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i guess i expect too much of my fan club

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@ Pfeif:

"you have no idea what you're talking about. you're just using this as an excuse to take cheap political shots because that's the best nonsense comment you can come up with"

You're a fucking idiot. You're arguing for the sake of arguing. Public schools are in sad sad shape, and a large part of that reasoning is because many many of the teachers are absolutely terrible. My comment had nothing to do with a political "shot", and the facts speak for themselves...including the premise of this whole article.

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"Public schools are in sad sad shape, and a large part of that reasoning is because many many of the teachers are absolutely terrible. "

and you can totally tell that by homework questions which might offend someone? or have you already decided that public schools are terrible and you're just chiming in a me-too

"My comment had nothing to do with a political "shot""

bull. you don't even know the origin of your own arguments. how gullible are you?

"and the facts speak for themselves...including the premise of this whole article."

what facts? that students were given math problems which related to what they learned in history class? that at least three parents were upset by it?

the premise of this article is that it's a slow news day and all you need for a half assed article is for some parent somewhere to be concerned for their children

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i don't think a single one of you is capable of explaining why it is offensive to talk about physical abuse of slaves in math class but not as part of history class

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Other than that problem quoted above, I don't really think they were talking about the physical abuse of slaves as it really happened.
It's not a good idea to use anyone's physical abuse as a basis for a math problem. It's a bit trivializing, if not cold.

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"and you can totally tell that by homework questions which might offend someone? or have you already decided that public schools are terrible and you're just chiming in a me-too"

No, you can tell that by the test scores, the state's academic rating, and a host of other factors. Then the appropriate thing to do is to ask why? One of the glaringly obvious reasons might be that the teachers at these schools are not suited to be educating other people. This is is a perfect example of that.

"bull. you don't even know the origin of your own arguments. how gullible are you?"

Again - you're arguing for the sake of arguing. There's nothing political about my comment. It's an entirely objective assessment about the qualifications of the teachers that are teaching the kids in the public school system.

"what facts? that students were given math problems which related to what they learned in history class?"

No, the fact that a teacher had given math problems with casual refernces to slavery, without putting it in context.

"i don't think a single one of you is capable of explaining why it is offensive to talk about physical abuse of slaves in math class but not as part of history class"

Of course you don't. You're a narcissistic drudge, who gets off on battling it out with people on the internet. Seldom offering an actual opinion (or value), and constantly playing the middle just for the sake of conflict, while patting yourself on the back the entire time.

And to answer this...it's wrong, and it's offensive, because it's out of context. If you're teaching history, you teach it and you frame it in a way that is understandable and appropriate for kids. When you teach history, you teach history, and you frame things in the appropriate context - i.e. "slavery happened in the past, slavery was wrong, slavery was eradicated". When you teach math, you teach it in it's own context; you don't blend the two, and treat one topic like it's something that can be appropriately blended into everyday situations.

I know it's not your "day off" today, but perhaps you can respond when you're done cleaning toilets.

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"It's not a good idea to use anyone's physical abuse as a basis for a math problem. It's a bit trivializing, if not cold."

is it? considering they were probably talking about the subject that day in another class

"No, you can tell that by the test scores, the state's academic rating, and a host of other factors."

schools in gwinnett county are usually pretty good. beaver ridge is above average in state performance and has high testing scores. sounds to me like you're generalizing in a desperate bid to reinforce what you've already decided to be true, in spite of evidence

"One of the glaringly obvious reasons might be that the teachers at these schools are not suited to be educating other people. "

another glaringly obvious reason might be that you're not very bright and resent education

stop generalizing and stop judging if you don't have anything other than emotional arguments

"It's an entirely objective assessment about the qualifications of the teachers that are teaching the kids in the public school system."

there's nothing 'objective' about your gut feeling that teachers aren't qualified to teach based off of one set of math problems. that is called 'subjective'. don't use words unless you understand what they mean

"No, the fact that a teacher had given math problems with casual refernces to slavery, without putting it in context."

how do you know they didn't put it in context?

(hint: you don't)

"Of course you don't. You're a narcissistic drudge, who gets off on battling it out with people on the internet. Seldom offering an actual opinion (or value), and constantly playing the middle just for the sake of conflict, while patting yourself on the back the entire time."

haha you're just jealous that i'm so much smarter than you, it's cute. i do get off on arguing but if you can't understand my arguments it's not my fault

"When you teach math, you teach it in it's own context; you don't blend the two, and treat one topic like it's something that can be appropriately blended into everyday situations. "

it's funny that you can claim teachers aren't qualified to teach when it's obvious from this statement that you know absolutely nothing about pedagogical techniques

AA, spouting off on a topic and then later demonstrating basic ignorance? i for one am shocked at this development

"I know it's not your "day off" today, but perhaps you can respond when you're done cleaning toilets."

the only toilets i clean are your posting (and your mother)

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"schools in gwinnett county are usually pretty good"

Public schools in general are not. I was generalizing about teachers in public schools, because generall speaking, they're quite poor in the state of Georgia, and that's a fact, reinforced by evidence of poor test scores, substandard performance relative to the rest of the nation, etc.

"stop generalizing and stop judging if you don't have anything other than emotional arguments"

Test scores and poor national rankings are far from "emotional".

"there's nothing 'objective' about your gut feeling that teachers aren't qualified to teach based off of one set of math problems"

Which is why I've cited our test scores, and poor national rankings alongside this particular example. There was also that little APS cheating scandal earlier this year as well. Ignoring the facts and data points of someone else, to serve your own narrative is really poor form.

"the only toilets i clean are your posting (and your mother)"

Keep patting yourself on the back, and calling it praise..

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"The very act of including slavery in a math question trivializes the subject."

how? especially if the students were learning about slavery that day (which they probably were)

"There's no way to contextualize this issue to make it appropriate in a word problem for middle-schoolers."

apparently the teacher(s) in question thought differently

"I mean, c'mon."

not very convincing

"Public schools in general are not. I was generalizing about teachers in public schools, because generall speaking, they're quite poor in the state of Georgia, and that's a fact, reinforced by evidence of poor test scores, substandard performance relative to the rest of the nation, etc."

generally speaking, it's a fact

you're terrible at debate

please explain to me how your qualitative generalizations about public school stand up to the fact that we are talking about one specific school with higher than average quantitative metrics

"Test scores and poor national rankings are far from "emotional"."

this school specifically has high test scores so yeah, it's an emotional argument (it's based in your emotional outrage about generally failing schools)

"Which is why I've cited our test scores, and poor national rankings alongside this particular example. There was also that little APS cheating scandal earlier this year as well. Ignoring the facts and data points of someone else, to serve your own narrative is really poor form."

you stupid fucking hypocrite

you are ignoring my facts and data points to the benefit of your own argument. here, i'll even post them for you since you seem incapable of doing basic research

http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-mainweb…

APS has nothing to do with an elementary school in gwinnett county. you really have no idea what you're talking about, as demonstrated that you refuse to get away from your horribly vague argument

this is almost too easy. you're dumb as hell bro

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"Obviously when you were in school history was already being taught incorrectly. For Pete's sake. SECESSION, people. NOT SLAVERY."

at least we didn't drop out of school you backwoods lunatic

the south seceded to protect the institution of slavery, that is a fact

"Abe Lincoln didn't 'free the slaves' - he just emancipated the ones in Southern states he thought might rise up and slaughter their owners, as part of the North's very concerted effort to completely subjugate the South."

so what? lincoln wasn't very fond of the slaves, that's not a secret. but he fought to keep the union together, because nobody knew if it was legal to secede. lincoln trying to score political points doesn't invalidate the fact that the south seceded solely to protect the enslavement of human beings

what about alexander stephens' cornerstone speech? the one where the confederate vice pres specifically states that slavery was the reason for secession?

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library…

peep this:

"But not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other though last, not least. The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right."

aaaaand this:

"The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew."

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

if the south really had a case, maybe they would have been diplomatically recognized by at least one other nation. please take your ignorant revisionist trash elsewhere thank you

"And this is ATLANTA, GEORGIA - where Sherman started his destructive march to the sea. For SHAME. If students here are taught complete effing falsehoods about the Civil War, I shudder to think what else they are learning. Oh, yeah, the whole Thanksgiving story. That's another priceless pile of steaming horsedoody."

you don't know a god damn thing about the civil war except what you learned from pamphlets you picked up at klan meetings. knock it off

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@Grace
So I guess no issues with the accuracy of the missing teeth and incest statistics I used for my examples?

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also the south started the war when they attacked a federal military installation so don't give me this 'war of northern aggression' horseshit either. the south picked a fight and they lost, suck it up

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"please explain to me how your qualitative generalizations about public school stand up to the fact that we are talking about one specific school with higher than average quantitative metrics"

Because I never made a direct assertation about this particular school. I made a statement about teachers at public schools, in general. I used this as an example of the general problems with teachers in public schools, not this particular school. And the general test scores, ranking of GA's public schools, etc. are a testement to those problems. You are talking about one specific school, I was not.

This is just a perfect example of you arguing a point you clearly didn't comprehend (that I was discussing the general state of teachers at public schools, not this particular school), and then botching every attempt to understand how misguided your argument was. Meanwhile, patting yourself on the back all along for being a "master debator". Nothing but a tool.

"you're terrible at debate"

Says the guy who hasn't udnerstood the point of the argument this entire time.

"this school specifically has high test scores so yeah, it's an emotional argument"

Completely irrelevent as my original point had nothing to do with this specific school or it's test scores.

"you are ignoring my facts and data points to the benefit of your own argument. here, i'll even post them for you since you seem incapable of doing basic research"

Hey, thanks for posting facts about one specific school when my entire point related to the general state of public schools. Not only do you ignore the facts, but you also continue to ignore the premise of my entire point. It's like arguing with a robot that operates on one specific algorithm - "I am Pfeifer. I am right. Repeat."

"you're dumb as hell bro"

Says the wage worker on his day off. Shouldn't you get back to polishing your Community College Diploma?

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"is it?"
Yes, it is. I think that's pretty easy to see.

"considering they were probably talking about the subject that day in another class"
That was another class, so that is another (and different) situation.

Not really into debating about how the history of my relatives being used in a math problem makes me feel.

CLEARLY, this struck a nerve and while the people responding might use the most specific vocab to express why it makes them feel the way they do. It's probably best to ask them how they feel AND JUST LISTEN. Instead of acting like it's some nonsensical challenge you can just debate through.

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"We need something that can be counted!"
"How 'bout negro-beatins?"
"GREAT IDEER. IMMA REKKIMEND YEW FER GRAN WIZARD."

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i guarantee you it was a white, liberal, democrat voter that did this...

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eric i had you pegged as the most liberal, since you are also the most ignorant and hateful.

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i believe that the context was that the teachers had just finished a unit on frederick douglass - not that there is a connection in my mind.

a dumb way to write math problems, but hardly a fireable offense.

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"Hey, thanks for posting facts about one specific school when my entire point related to the general state of public schools. Not only do you ignore the facts, but you also continue to ignore the premise of my entire point."

your entire point is idiotic because you are an idiot. sorry about your broken brain

"This is just a perfect example of you arguing a point you clearly didn't comprehend (that I was discussing the general state of teachers at public schools, not this particular school), and then botching every attempt to understand how misguided your argument was. "

so in other words, i'm talking about something specific to this article and you're making general points that have very little to do with the article, and now you're mad at me for not agreeing with your dumb generalizations that are not relevant to the topic at hand

sure ok man whatever. it's a little sad how horrible you are at discussing complex topics like an adult

"Yes, it is. I think that's pretty easy to see."

not for everyone?

"CLEARLY, this struck a nerve and while the people responding might use the most specific vocab to express why it makes them feel the way they do. It's probably best to ask them how they feel AND JUST LISTEN. Instead of acting like it's some nonsensical challenge you can just debate through."

sorry that you're offended over poor wording in a math problem but if you can't really explain why you're offended then don't be offended when i don't really grasp the depths of your offense

really my greater point is that this isn't really all that offensive and it's a lame news article that simply highlights that some people are offended without really going into the topic

it's like you could call this article "Parents offended over fact that slavery happened" and the wording wouldn't change at all. some people are pissed, that's not really news worthy. this article serves solely to perpetuate the sterotype of southerners as rednecks (even though the school in question is majority non-white)

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I already explained why it was at they very least trivializing and cold. You just don't agree. That's not the same as debate. I'm not trying to convince you that my feelings are correct, b/c clearly you believe the emotional reaction to be worthless.
You're not the aribiter of what is or is not offensive. If you can't grasp the depths, that's not really MY problem.
There would be nothing to highlight and not stereotype to perpetuate had someone said "This might not be a good idea, let's try something else."

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