'If Fred Got Two Beatings Per Day…' Homework Asks

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/fred-got-two-beatings-per-day-homework-asks-230717586--abc-news.html

Third graders in in Gwinnett County, Ga., were given math homework Wednesday that asked questions about slavery and beatings.

Christopher Braxton told ABC News affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta that he couldn't believe the assignment his 8-year-old son brought home from of Beaver Ridge Elementary school in Norcross.

"It kind of blew me away," Braxton said. "Do you see what I see? Do you really see what I see? He's not answering this question."

The question read, "Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"

Another math problem read, "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?"

Another question asked how many baskets of cotton Frederick filled.

"I was furious at that point," Braxton said.

"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."

"In this one, the teachers were trying to do a cross-curricular activity," Gwinnett County school district spokeswoman Sloan Roach said.

Roach said the teachers were attempting to incorporate social studies into math problems.

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

[Valmy]

If the Allies killed one German for every 10 bombs they dropped on Dresden and they dropped 120,000 bombs how many Germans did they kill?

[Richard Hakluyt]

A hooker turns ten tricks a day. She charges $40 for safe sex and $60 for unsafe sex. On a day when she makes $500 how many condoms does she use?

[garbon]

A hooker turns ten tricks a day. She charges $40 for safe sex and $60 for unsafe sex. On a day when she makes $500 how many condoms does she use?

Probably not social studies.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Francois lives in a refugee camp of 16,000 people. 55% of the people in the camp will contract cholera and 15% of those will die of it. What is the chance that Francois will die of cholera?

[MadImmortalMan]

I have no problem with any of these questions. I think ten years hanging with you people has ruined me. 

[Malthus]

I have no problem with any of these questions. I think ten years hanging with you people has ruined me. 

Heh, I thought I was the only one. 

My thought on this thread: 'if math class had these sorts of questions, I'd have liked it better'.

[Lucidor]

Francois lives in a refugee camp of 16,000 people. 55% of the people in the camp will contract cholera and 15% of those will die of it. What is the chance that Francois will die of cholera?

Personally, I'd use 'risk'...

[Grey Fox]

"I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts."

It hurts? Yeah, you having to do some hard parenting instead of letting the TV do it. Wasn't covered by Dora so you're fucked, eh?

[dps]

"I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts."

It hurts? Yeah, you having to do some hard parenting instead of letting the TV do it. Wasn't covered by Dora so you're fucked, eh?

Yeah, there's nothing racist about acknowledging that slavery existed legally here before the 13th Amendment.  Probably if Daddy had been taught history better he would have been more equipped to explain it to his kid.

[lustindarkness]

I have no problem with any of these questions. I think ten years hanging with you people has ruined me. 

Were hangings included in the math questions?

[Habbaku]

Poor Fred. 

[DGuller]

The Fred question seems like a trick question.  At some point Fred is going to be beaten to death, so the naive approach of multiplying 2 by a number of days is incorrect.

[The Brain]

  Mexicans aren't slaves.

[garbon]

"I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts."

It hurts? Yeah, you having to do some hard parenting instead of letting the TV do it. Wasn't covered by Dora so you're fucked, eh?

Yeah, there's nothing racist about acknowledging that slavery existed legally here before the 13th Amendment.  Probably if Daddy had been taught history better he would have been more equipped to explain it to his kid.

None of that has anything to do with his statement about needing to explain why slavery and beatings are in his child's elementary school math problems.