It was 'a poorly written question,' concedes spokesperson
(NEWSER) - Out of Georgia, an example of cross-curricular lesson-planning gone horribly wrong: Parents were furious when their third-graders came home with math homework asking about slavery and beatings. Read one problem, "Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" And another: "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?" District officials say in the future, the Beaver Ridge Elementary School principal will work directly with teachers to develop more appropriate questions. Still, "I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem," fumes one parent. "That hurts." More»
