When they showed the actual handout on the news, I definitely saw other history related questions. One was the Susan B Anthony example I posted above. I’m not saying there weren’t also some generic questions on the handout.
Okay. Again. Lacked context. Inappropriate. Racist. Ethnocentric. Stupid.
I must be missing something in the linked article. Slavery is and was horrible. I learned about that in school, and so do these kids. The math problems highlight that.
Now if we want to complain about 8 year olds being so far behind in math that these are the sorts of questions they’re getting, I’m right on board.
That article that Mr Pained linked to says that no corresponding history lesson was provided. That’s pretty damn shitty, and I’m totally on board with being pissed off.
OK, if a “hate crime” enhancement adds 15% to a felon’s sentence and Jimmy Bob would otherwise be looking at 12 years . . .
No, it’s a badly written question. Sorry. The general point wasn’t about math, though I concede I shouldn’t have given such a badly written example.
Trick question. The slave is a woman, and Frederick is her son.
I don’t see how it being from Georgia makes it racist, but I guess the 7 and 8 year old point is fair. I guess I’ll admit that I’m a bit odd in that when I think of slavery I’m more likely to think of Rome. Hell, even in America the fact that Africans were slaves was more of a fluke of history (at least if my high school history class had any credibility), we tried whites (could blend into society too easily) and native Americans (knew the surrounding area so well they could easily escape) back in the 1600s/Chesapeake Bay era in the earliest colonies.
I suppose I was a bit disingenuous insinuating that people would think of slavery as an institution before more “recent” and sensitive local history, apologies.
Yes, you do.
Not particularly.
Not to mention, completely mindless and robotic. You know exactly what the Anthony question probably said before they “integrated” it into the social sciences curriculum:
[QUOTE=Original Question]
Susan needed $100 to buy a new dress. She only had $25. How much more did she need to buy the dress?
[/quote]
Their solution? “Let’s just plug in ‘Susan B. Anthony’ and change ‘dress’ to ‘fine,’ and we’re good to go!”
Problem is Anthony never paid any part of the fine at all (in civil disobedience), so they just screwed the whole thing up completely.
“John has 13 grams of arsenic and 400 Jolly Ranchers. If ingesting .4 grams of arsenic is fatal, how many Jolly Ranchers…”
You can’t be so ignorant and not know about the South’s “peculiar Institution” the ONE SINGLE THING THAT HAS POWERED THE SOUTHERN MINDSET since 1800 or so.:dubious: No one in America can be that ignorant. You’re just trolling.
I’m perfectly aware that the south had a history of (black) slavery and racism. I fail to see how the logical leap is made that references to slaves immediately makes it racist.
Think about the questions. Who could you actually ask it of for it to be relevant?
And for the horribly thick, I’ll spell it out. The only person to whom the questions would be relevant are slave owners. The question is asking the kids to put themselves in the mind of a slave owner. The question is saying it’s okay for modern humans to make calculations based on how fast their slaves work or how many times you personally beat them. This isn’t showing how bad slavery is, it is trivializing it to the same level as “You’re a farmer who has 5 apples.”
By your argument, the Holocaust is just a horrible thing in history. Would you consider it acceptable to ask the kids questions like “If it takes 25 minutes for each person to die once subjected to Zyklon B., how many Jews can be killed in 8 hours?” Aren’t we just showing the kids how horrible the Holocaust was?
So, it’s a fine idea until someone actually does it. That makes sense.
If Jimmy Jack can sell crystal meth at $100 per ounce, and it takes $35 worth of feedstock chemicals to produce one once . . .
Alas, the end of the world is coming again and I think it’s affecting folks…
Wild guess: you’re not black.
No, trolls are green. 
He knows full well that they weren’t talking about Roman slaves in a Georgia school. He’s just trolling.