Teacher fired after assigning violent math problems to third graders

Started by jimmy olsen, March 04, 2012, 09:30:05 PM

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jimmy olsen

March 04, 2012, 09:30:05 PM
And people wonder why kids aren't interested in school.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/teacher-fired-assigning-violent-math-problems-third-graders-201910368.html

QuoteTeacher fired after assigning violent math problems to third graders
By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow – Fri, Mar 2, 2012

A Washington, D.C., charter school teacher has been fired after it was discovered the teacher had assigned third-grade students a number of math problems framed around violent and illegal scenarios.

At first, the unnamed teacher at the Trinidad Center City School claimed he had been ordered to assign the problems, but it was quickly discovered that the teacher had actually downloaded them from a free homeschooling website called "HomeschoolingParadise.com."

"I was absolutely distressed," Dr. Beverley Wheeler, the CEO of Center City PCS, which oversees Trinidad, told WUSA9.  "It doesn't follow anything we do. We are about character, excellence and service and I found them to be violent and racist."

Even more baffling, other parents at the school say the teacher in question is a minister.

[Parents outraged after homework references slavery, beatings]

I went to the Homeschooling Paradise website and took a look at the third-grade homeschooling "Worksheets" curriculum. To start, the site's own promotional slogan uses oddly harsh (and racially problematic) language, asking:

"Want your kids to sharpen their mathematical skills to a razor's edge? There is nothing better than grinding their neurons on Singapore math." You can read more about the Singapore math system here.

Here are some of the suggested math problems from the site. And to be clear, I'm not cherry-picking; almost any question picked at random will reflect the concerns expressed by Dr. Wheeler:

"I was sleeping one night when a hungry vampire sucked 3652 liters of blood from me and 1865 liters of blood from my little brother. How much blood did the hungry vampire drink that night?"

Another reads:

"I took a nap in a bog one day and woke up screaming. 3796 leeches, 2910 fleas and 1044 vampire bats were stuck to my bald head drinking my blood in ecstasy. How many bloodthirsty bloodsuckers were dining on my head?"

And check out this incredibly morbid problem:

"John's father gave him 1359 marbles on his birthday. John swallowed 585 marbles and died. 9 of John's friends came for his funeral the next day. John's grieving father gave the remaining marbles to John's friends in equal numbers. How many marbles did each friend get?"

Last I checked, most kids are warned against indulging in tobacco products. Nonetheless, Homeschooling Paradise offers this equation for children to ponder:

"John, Jack and Jim lit up their pipes after dinner and began blowing smoke rings. By the time they were finished, they had blown a total of 6437 smoke rings. If John blew 52 smoke rings and Jack blew 3896 smoke rings, how many smoke rings did Jim blow?"
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

garbon

#1
March 04, 2012, 09:34:30 PM
So where's the illegal scenarios bit?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Neil

#2
March 04, 2012, 09:38:05 PM
That is racist against vampires.

Still, it's American school bureaucrats making these judgements.  There are few groups in the world less interested in educating children.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

Eddie Teach

#3
March 04, 2012, 09:58:07 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 04, 2012, 09:30:05 PM
"John's father gave him 1359 marbles on his birthday. John swallowed 585 marbles and died. 9 of John's friends came for his funeral the next day. John's grieving father gave the remaining marbles to John's friends in equal numbers. How many marbles did each friend get?"

Awesome.  :lol:
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

KRonn

#4
March 04, 2012, 09:59:19 PM
Pretty cool questions. A divergence of the usual fare, eh? Add some vampires, leeches and pipes, a little diversity of question matter, spice things up. Kids should feel lucky for some change.

Razgovory

#5
March 04, 2012, 10:04:56 PM
I would have liked questions like that as a third grader.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Jaron

#6
March 04, 2012, 10:12:36 PM
Those problems are certainly not worth firing over. I love them!!!!
Winner of THE grumbler point.

HVC

#7
March 04, 2012, 10:51:21 PM
I blame parents and lawyers. Mainly lawyers.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Barrister

#8
March 05, 2012, 01:48:39 AM
Quote from: HVC on March 04, 2012, 10:51:21 PM
I blame parents and lawyers. Mainly lawyers.

You always say that. :rolleyes:
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Eddie Teach

#9
March 05, 2012, 02:02:10 AM
It's almost always true.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

The Brain

#10
March 05, 2012, 04:06:28 AM
Did they remove the controversial problems from the site?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Camerus

#11
March 05, 2012, 07:13:47 AM
Best get rid of anything in primary school that might be more interesting to boys.

grumbler

#12
March 05, 2012, 07:37:39 AM Last Edit: March 05, 2012, 07:46:20 AM by grumbler
I find the school principal's support for her faculty niggardly.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

HVC

#13
March 05, 2012, 09:57:04 AM
Quote from: Barrister on March 05, 2012, 01:48:39 AM
Quote from: HVC on March 04, 2012, 10:51:21 PM
I blame parents and lawyers. Mainly lawyers.

You always say that. :rolleyes:
And I'm right :p. but you work for the government so you get a pass on the litigious side :lol:
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

DGuller

#14
March 05, 2012, 10:22:50 AM
Quote from: HVC on March 05, 2012, 09:57:04 AM
Quote from: Barrister on March 05, 2012, 01:48:39 AM
Quote from: HVC on March 04, 2012, 10:51:21 PM
I blame parents and lawyers. Mainly lawyers.

You always say that. :rolleyes:
And I'm right :p. but you work for the government so you get a pass on the litigious side :lol:
The lawyers on your own side can be just as damaging, by pre-emptively covering your ass to the point that you suffocate.
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