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Spotted @ The Single Father’s Blog

In Atlanta-area elementary SCHOOL is under fire after some of their 3rd grade teachers assigned math homework to their classes with word problems that referenced slavery and beating without any reference to history.

Questions on the assignment like “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick? ” and “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?””, were given to students at Beaver Ridge Elementary school in Norcross, Georgia.

The assignment  even referenced blacks having to pay a FINE  for voting.  The teachers asked the students “Susan B Anthony was fined $100 for voting for president.   She only had $25, how much more did she need to pay the fine?  I mean really... WTF?!?!?!?! Why would you teach about Black’s having to pay a fine to vote without teaching about the 15th Amendment  which prohibited states from denying voting rights based on skin color.

The student body at Beaver Ridge Elementary is made up of 24%  Black children and 62%  Latino children who come from low income homes.  It’s already hard enough getting young voters and people of color to get out and go to the polls, things like this will only continue the insidious effects of low minority voter turn outs and lack of political involvement by people of color.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely feel that the historical facts of slavery should be taught to students at an early age. But it HAS to be done in the correct historical context.  If not, you run the risk of having young children gaining an inferiority complex that could plague their lives forever.

Officials from the Gwinnett County School District said that the teacher wanted to “cross-curricular activity,” in which social studies topics would be woven into math assignments.”

The Georgia chapter of the NAACP is asking that the teacher who wrote the questions be fired.  Personally I think that the teacher who wrote them, and the others who distributed should get the boot.   The long lasting effects of this particular assignment can’t be measured.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

SHOULD THESE TEACHERS BE FIRED FOR THEIR ACTIONS?