There's Racism Lurking in Your Math Problems! (Gasp)

Yes, that’s right. Racism is somewhere hiding within the numbers of your children’s math problems. Okay, maybe not racism but insensitive stupidity was definitely present within the minds of those who prepared homework for a third grade math class.

Parents of Gwinett County, GA got a history lesson when they viewed their children’s arithmetic homework after school last Wednesday but it was probably one they weren’t expecting. Some of the math questions asked; If each tree had 56 oranges and eight slaves had to pick an equal amount how much which each one pick?” You would pray to God that it would stop there but the descent into madness continued with other questions such as, “If Fred got two beatings per day how many did he get in one week?” And another which dealt with how many baskets of cotton Frederick filled?  The school superintendent explained that the teachers were attempting a “cross curricular activity” between Social Studies and Math. I wholeheartedly support the discovery of pedagogical techniques in which students can learn content that is outside that of traditional forms but as one can see this was a major fail.

I ask the question of why teachers picked slavery as the topic to test this technique and why in the manner that it was discussed. It’s funny that there were no questions such as, “If the slave master raped eight slave women and they each had five kids, how many biracial kids would be the result of this act?” Or “If the slave owner sold 3 children each from 5 slave families how many children would be separated from their parents because of this sale?” Because if one were to think about it, these types of questions could have been included as well and it exposes the type of slippery slope that these math problems represent. It was not a coincidence that the teachers decided to focus on the slave performing the degrading acts of chattel slavery instead of incorporating questions that put the slave owner in a debased position similar to that of Frederick getting beat or picking oranges off of a tree.

But the final caveat in this whole situation is the lightheartedness of the treatment of slavery to the point where one would find it acceptable to shove them into a children’s math problem without any historical context. It was easier for the teachers to carelessly use the system of slavery in this homework assignment since their ancestors do not have a direct link as victims to such an abhorrent institution. The children certainly could have learned multiplication, subtraction, division and addition in these problems without the insertion of slavery so I’m confused as to how this technique was introducing anything new or exciting to the study of math within the framework of this “cross curricular activity.” I know one thing; if this is the collaboration of Social Studies and Math to create some new hybrid form of curriculum it’s best to teach them separately. Like the old cliché goes, if it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it.