I always thought my math teacher were slave-drivers. It turns out I was right.

Where is the FAIL tag!

Bob Pettapiece sounds like my new Fark alt.

Q: If you whip Toby 3 times a day for a week, how many total whippin's did Toby get?

A: I was told there would be no math...

I guess I need more information to decide my attitude about this. The assignment seems pretty innocuous. Maybe it's some context detail that's upsetting mom. Are all/most of the teachers white, and all/most of the students black? Are they only asking black students to do the diaries? Have the children been asked to give up their free time to work their fathers' former janitorial jobs for pennies an hour? What's going on here?

Was this a Math assignment or a History assignment? The article isn't clear.

Might as well use a point of reference the kids have been taught EVERYTHING about, since they were old enough to hear.

Ahem, Subby:

A) The "educators" you quoted were influential people in the field of education (specifically social science education), and their credentials are better than yours. For you to call them "educators," in quotes, is laughable.

B) Where the farking FARK did you get "math?" There was no mention of math in that article. At all. Except in the sidebar to the article, which links back to Fark... which now has your dumbass headline on there. Idiot.

C) There is ZERO indication that the black student was singled out for this assignment. Would you have a problem with a class, which happened to have Jewish kids, imagining what it was like to be an Auschwitz inmate? Or a class with Irish students in the mix imagining things from the perspective of early 20th-century immigrants? As I recall from recent studies, this assignment gets students to think critically about the human importance of history.

You have a problem with Detroit, that much is clear... and also, even more clearly, with educators. And you're willing to badmouth both of these vulnerable groups in public for a cheap laugh, and somehow I know you're also feeling righteous about the whole thing.

Well, SMD and DIAF, you small-minded cretin.

Bo Giggity: Might as well use a point of reference the kids have been taught EVERYTHING about, since they were old enough to hear.

You have no idea what Metro Detroit and its people are like, or what they value, or what they teach their kids. STFU.

Looks like Make More Hinjews said most of what I wanted (albeit a bit more abrasively that I might have).

As a history teacher, I've often assigned an "Imagine you are _______" or "Keep a diary as if you ______" assignment based on reading some primary source documents. The parent in the article is a thin-skinned professional victim.

I did read the original article on the math questions, as well. Those were poorly executed good faith efforts to fill a mandate to be more culturally inclusive in ALL subject areas. Had they consulted some Social Studies/History teachers, the initial butt-hurt may have been minimized.

This is what happens on a slow news day...

Funny how people weep for just one tree...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest#Deforestation (new window)

If only Wikipedia wasn't on a blackout today...

If people ignore slavery, then they are racists.

If they bring the subject of slavery in to the school, then they are going to get sued.

Damned if you do, Damned if you don't.

I think this mom needs to have a beer and chill the fark out.

Yugoboy: Looks like Make More Hinjews said most of what I wanted (albeit a bit more abrasively that I might have).

As a history teacher, I've often assigned an "Imagine you are _______" or "Keep a diary as if you ______" assignment based on reading some primary source documents. The parent in the article is a thin-skinned professional victim.

I did read the original article on the math questions, as well. Those were poorly executed good faith efforts to fill a mandate to be more culturally inclusive in ALL subject areas. Had they consulted some Social Studies/History teachers, the initial butt-hurt may have been minimized.

This is what happens on a slow news day...

I'm 28 now, and I've been paying attention to the deliberate gutting of our public education system since I was 14. This crap isn't just inaccurate, it's insidious and dangerous.

Make More Hinjews: Bo Giggity: Might as well use a point of reference the kids have been taught EVERYTHING about, since they were old enough to hear.

You have no idea what Metro Detroit and its people are like, or what they value, or what they teach their kids. STFU.

and I thank God every day

Bo Giggity: Make More Hinjews: Bo Giggity: Might as well use a point of reference the kids have been taught EVERYTHING about, since they were old enough to hear.

You have no idea what Metro Detroit and its people are like, or what they value, or what they teach their kids. STFU.

and I thank God every day

Brilliant. You got me there, sparky.

Detroit is poo.

Make More Hinjews: Ahem, Subby:

A) The "educators" you quoted were influential people in the field of education (specifically social science education), and their credentials are better than yours. For you to call them "educators," in quotes, is laughable.

B) Where the farking FARK did you get "math?" There was no mention of math in that article. At all. Except in the sidebar to the article, which links back to Fark... which now has your dumbass headline on there. Idiot.

C) There is ZERO indication that the black student was singled out for this assignment. Would you have a problem with a class, which happened to have Jewish kids, imagining what it was like to be an Auschwitz inmate? Or a class with Irish students in the mix imagining things from the perspective of early 20th-century immigrants? As I recall from recent studies, this assignment gets students to think critically about the human importance of history.

You have a problem with Detroit, that much is clear... and also, even more clearly, with educators. And you're willing to badmouth both of these vulnerable groups in public for a cheap laugh, and somehow I know you're also feeling righteous about the whole thing.

Well, SMD and DIAF, you small-minded cretin.

0/10

baronvonzipper: 0/10

?

Subby gets fail tag. No mention of math in original story. It was a SOCIAL STUDIES assignment.
That being said, yeah, the schools do need to teach about slavery, but that wasn't the way to do it.