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WTF: NYC School's 4th Grade Homework Has Slavery Word Problems
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 22, 2013
Modified Feb 22, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 22, 2013
Modified Feb 22, 2013
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A student teacher at P.S. 59 was horrified when she was told to photocopy and distribute a fourth grade homework assignment with "Slavery Word Problems" where the questions were "On a slave ship, there can be 3,799 slaves. One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?" and "One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?"
NY1 reports that the student teacher, Aziza Harding, picked another homework assignment to give to the students: "She left the teacher a note explaining that she wasn't comfortable with the first assignment and hoped to talk. Then, Harding turned to Charlton McIlwain, one of her professors at NYU, where she is a graduate student." McIlwain was just as disturbed and contacted NY1.
P.S. 59's principal says she is "appalled by this" but the problem is that while Harding stopped one class from getting the assignment, it turns out the worksheet had been given to another class already. The fourth graders are learning about slavery this year, according to online curriculum, and the Post reports that teacher Jane Youn "asked the students to create their own questions, and distributed them as homework last month with the slave questions included."
McIlwain lamented this ill-advised approach to incorporating history and math, "You're ostensibly teaching or trying to teach history or call attention to a particular historical moment, yet there's no explanation, there's no education, there's no teaching going on. And so, for someone who is probably, at nine years of age, has maybe heard of slavery but probably doesn't know what it is really like, their first, perhaps, and most lasting impression about this historical event comes in a very abstracted, nonchalant type of thing that they have no real sense of connection to."
The Department of Education also said, "This is obviously unacceptable and we will take appropriate disciplinary action against these teachers." In DC, a teacher was fired for assigning math homework involving cannibals and aliens.
Tagged
fourth grade
manhattan
math
ps 59
public schools
really?!?
slavery word problems
wtf
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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