OT: Racist Math questions for 3rd graders in Georgia

[Crimsoncrew]

Hey,no one forced them to go into teaching.

I guess the old adage is true...Those that can do, those that can't,teach.

I would say that those who care more about others than themselves teach.

If we want better education, we need to pay teachers better so talented individuals will go into teaching. Otherwise, they'll choose to go into a field where their advanced degree will lead to a commensurate increase in income.

 

[NinerSickness]

What sort of pension plans do doctors have?

They usually don't have pensions. They're not raping the private sector like government employees do. Government workers get pensions; the rest of us get bankrupt social security.

Any teacher that doesn't work nights and weekends isn't a very good teacher. When I was teaching, I made at best about $12 an hour.?

They don't have to be good teachers! They get tenure after 2 years (in California at least).

And it doens't matter how hard a teacher works; they're not allowed to discipline children, so it doesn't matter what they do. Kids will never respect them; hense kids won't care what they say.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

They usually don't have pensions. They're not raping the private sector like government employees do. Government workers get pensions; the rest of us get bankrupt social security.



They don't have to be good teachers! They get tenure after 2 years (in California at least).

And it doens't matter how hard a teacher works; they're not allowed to discipline children, so it doesn't matter what they do. Kids will never respect them; hense kids won't care what they say.

I have already said I disagree with the tenure system and the difficulty of firing bad teachers. In my experience, granted at a private school where teachers could discipline students, students respected good teachers.

There are MANY flaws with the current educational system, but good teachers are crucial to improving it. And in my extensive personal experience, the average teacher is grossly underpaid for their level of education and time commitment.

Btw, given that we are discussing the benefits of education, your spelling has gone to shit in this thread, Sick.

 

[NinerSickness]

Btw, given that we are discussing the benefits of education, your spelling has gone to shit in this thread, Sick.

Hense going BACK to school.

By the way your experience was in the priate sector? Correct?

 

[MarkOU]

They should be modern with their questions like......

If Shoniquia got $100 in welfare payments per child how much would she get for 8 kids?

Or

If Tyrone was sentenced to 15 years but was given credit for 3 years already served how many years is his sentence?

 

[clyde_carbon]

This thread has turned into a shitfest. Let's get it back on track.

 

[NinerSickness]

LOL @ how offensive that was. Wow.

~trying to stop laughing~

 

[MarkOU]

This thread has turned into a shitfest. Let's get it back on track.

Dude what are you talking about? This thread has potenial.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Hense going BACK to school.

By the way your experience was in the priate sector? Correct?

Yes, I taught in a few catholic schools. My sister is a public school teacher in CA, though, so I have some insight into that system.

 

[numone9er]

Damn, this thread blew up while i was gone. It seems like a lot of the facts are left out. We don't have all the facts so it makes it hard to accuse the teacher of being a racist. As imac pointed out, it's inappropriate, but not racist. However, we don't know whether the teacher was incorporating the history and math or if that was just an assumption.

Obviously children should learn about slavery as young as they possibly can, but are they able to fully grasp the concept? Kids can be cruel, and if these "math problems" are taken out of context this could be used against children of a different race on the playground. Lets be honest, kids are very cruel and they have quite the imagination. My qualm with it is these "problems" don't identify slavery as being wrong. Hopefully the teacher explained slavery is wrong to the children.

 

[MarkOU]

The real injustice is trying to mix social studies with math. Why not art or science instead?
Math is a powerful tool that one can be taught. I am not as gifted as some in this area of study and I blame a lot on myself for just being lazy but I also blame my teachers for not trying to teach me properly or inspiring me to learn the power of math.

Maybe this teacher was trying to inspire kids? In a sick way or perhaps he had just smoked a joint and wrote this shit because damn it is funny.

Have others come forward or is this an isolated incident? If it is, LoL @ someone trying to "create" a lawsuit to get rich, or at least think they will.

 

[imac_21]

Wow Sick. Your ignorance is truly shining through in this thread.

 

[MHSL82]

So you have no idea about the context. That's a problem. What if slavery is the topic for social studies at the same time? With the same teacher?

Is your issue the presence of social studies in math, or the presence of human rights issues in math?

Per your Nazi reference, there was nothing as specific as "putting Jews in ovens." There was no mention of religion, race or belief in any of these questions.

If the social studies class is discussing antisemitism, and has the same teacher for math, is it inappropriate to discuss antisemitism in math as well as social studies?

If you're discussing the treatment of Native Americans (Indian would be racist, unless Americans massacred the people of India with diseased blankets and I missed that part of my history classes) then why not branch it into other subjects? Particularly if it's the same teacher.

And that teacher was "TEACHING slavery in mathematics?" I don't see that. I see that teacher using examples from slavery in math lessons to.presumably, teach multiplication. It is not teaching slavery.

Which brings me back to the question of what are they doing (or have they done for that matter) in social studies?

And can someone please explain to me why it's inappropriate to teach 8 year olds about human rights and equality?

They should have just said if each person who escaped from the underground railroad saved five other people (not including the one that saved them), then how many people would be saved if... I'm not good at this, but there are other ways to incorporate social studies into math.

 

[MHSL82]

I don't disagree here, but lets explore this concept further as you suggest...



Except that you'd need to state 4 men would equally paint the house to make the whole. 1/4 of the painting would be done by each man. What's the problem here? That in order to teach fractions, you'd need to sometimes visually see what is happening and have some kind of proper application to do so. That's why some teachers use the pie example because it is both easy to see and easy to teach and it works in the real world. However, how many damn houses have you seen where it can be cut in a cross-section equally in 4 parts? You'd have to probably suggest a house that is a box. Do people really live in houses like that? No, houses come in all shapes and sizes and disproportionate enough that you can't honestly divide it equally, let alone paint it equally. So, while you may have found some goofy way to teach fractions with people living in boxed houses, you didn't exactly teach a real world application of mathematical tools, which is what "cross-curricular" (giving the benefit of the doubt to these teachers that they had the right intentions) is intending to teach their students. So, to answer your question specifically if I would complain, the answer to that is yes. Your teaching is inaccurate and I would never want a kid to learn from your methods so that another teacher would have to correct their thinking down the road.

I wouldn't worry myself too much about people learning that houses are all square when they aren't.

And everything in this world can be divided equally into four parts, two parts, three parts, five parts, etc. It's a funny riddle, in fact. From one through a hundred, how many can be divided by two equally? All of them (some are thinking just the even numbers).

But even if you couldn't divide into four parts, does his specific example have any bearing on the general example he was trying to give? If he had said "a six sided box is equally painted by 6 painters, how many sides does each painter paint", would you have said this was a terrible question because each painter could have painted half of one side and half of the other and therefore each painter painted two sides? Or that each painter could paint one third of three sides and therefore the answer could be three sides? What if someone was trying to teach the assembly line, would you object to questions about human workers when they now use machines? Do you understand what his point was?

I accept your general point articulated throughout this thread, but am puzzled by the point of this response. And, I'm not coming to Imac's defense - he doesn't need me to and also, he snapped at me for agreeing with something I thought he said in another thread. Just asking what you meant.

 

[MHSL82]

Hey,no one forced them to go into teaching.

I guess the old adage is true...Those that can do, those that can't,teach.

... and those who can't teach, teach driver's ed. I joke about that because the coach for my high school football team was the driver's ed teacher because I assume there was some rule that only faculty could coach.

 

[MHSL82]

Because of the obscene amount of money they get for being glorified babysitters. Most public school teachers I've met in my life are some of the most useless, lazy complaining human beings I've ever met.

I'm not going to argue much with you because I don't see the point. But I wanted to add a comment that I read in an editorial, of which I don't agree with but thought was funny.

They said that if each teacher was paid minimum wage for babysitters for each kid for 160 days (30 students/day X 160 days/year X 8 hours/day X $5/hour = $192,000 per year), they'd make more money than what they are given, including pensions. And still have summers off. And the parents, if education is so bad, would get the same or better than just sending them to a daycare. So, it concluded that those parents who don't want to bother to home school should just pay the teachers babysitting rates.

Substantively, though - I generally don't trust parents who cannot supplement their kids' education or rather just bitch about the poor job teachers are doing to teach their own kids. The fact is most parents have been educated by public teachers and we are to trust those parents to adequately educate their kids if given 22K? I'd have to hear about the sticks they add to that carrot.

I feel that people that are motivated to teach their kids or send them to private schools are better at parenting their kids (in general) and that's why we see such a better performance by home schooled children. If you or others fit that mold I advocate home schooling or private schooling. I don't think that success rate would continue, however, if you had everyone home school. There are just too many stupid parents, who as you know, were publicly taught.

My point? I'm not advocating public schools or saying they are adequate. I just think the alternative posed by you is too optimistic or lacking in details of how you wouldn't get welfare parents to just take the money and run. I'm sure you have thought this through, which is why I'm not really trying to debate you. I give you the benefit of the doubt. I assume that most would use a voucher for private school and you'd have to meet certain criteria to home school. Two parent working homes obviously would private school it. I think some things would return to normal, as in private school being dumbed down by such an influx, but it would be a work in progress for awhile. I don't know if 22K is sufficient for private school, but I assume you did your math on that.

I do want to add that my mom was a pediatrician for 20 years and now is a kindergarten teacher because she loves working with kids. She's told me that she would never participate in a rally for higher pay for teachers, but does think that the money is misspent and therefore the classrooms have less money for adequate supplies. She would advocate better spending as well as more funding if more was needed after cuts were made (perhaps including pension cuts, salary cuts, etc.) Then again, my mom has enough money from her doctor work and my dad's a surgeon.

 

[MarkOU]

Wow Sick. Your ignorance is truly shining through in this thread.

How do you figure?

I didn't write the question and if I had, I would have most likely been high when I did it.

 

[Epic Voidfield]

But even if you couldn't divide into four parts, does his specific example have any bearing on the general example he was trying to give? If he had said "a six sided box is equally painted by 6 painters, how many sides does each painter paint", would you have said this was a terrible question because each painter could have painted half of one side and half of the other and therefore each painter painted two sides? Or that each painter could paint one third of three sides and therefore the answer could be three sides? What if someone was trying to teach the assembly line, would you object to questions about human workers when they now use machines? Do you understand what his point was?

That's the essence of my example. The historical context and thus its relevant mathematical application has to have a level of credibility. Otherwise, you're just teaching dumb gimmicks to students while completely underlining the point of cross-curriculum activities.

 

[goDAWGSsicem]

Atlanta

 

[sayheykid1]

Ah yes the myseterious untraceable multitude of extra hours they put in. They're allotted time to grade papers & other back breaking things they do. They even get "teacher work days" where the kids don't go to school.

The get gold plated benefits and have a multitude of options to make extra income (coaching, summer school, tutoring, etc).

They work 160 days a year. That's a part time job. They benefit from the archaic structure of summers off for crop harvesting. Great idea for 2011.



Wow. Maybe on your planet; but here on earth it's the job everyone wants.

And it's funny that these two professions are ALWAYS the ones crying about their jobs. They make me sick.

By the way I'm going back to school to be a teacher. For the money. Just so y'know.

My brother in-law is always grading papers on nights and weekends.
These people make you sick so you want to become one of them. Wow.

You can make a lot more money getting your MBA and the work is pretty easy.