http://news.yahoo.com/slavery-math-questions-cause-uproar-nyc-school-143209393.html What kind of **** is this?
Mixing subjects was stupid, not even for the potential offensiveness of it. Complain all you want about teaching to the test, but **** needs to be standardized and monitored to avoid crap like this. And really not sure why we're reading about this in the national news. Not that my black, immigrant parents ever had to with our teachers, but I don't think they wasted time looking for stuff to get offended about.
Totally disagree. Mixing subjects is a great way to develop actual critical thinking skills. The simpler solution is to have teachers with some common sense.
It sounds like the kids wrote those question. Maybe the teachers didn't actually read the questions before using them. Not surprising given the blatant amount of racism show on clutch fans and pretty much every other forum. I think most people are racist some people just do a better job of hiding it. Maybe the kids haven't developed that filter yet.
Alright, this is a tough one. As a teacher, I feel like the people in my profession, especially the men, are unfairly scrutinized because of cases like this one. Before I read controversial headlines related to teaching, I try to go into it thinking that the teacher had good intentions. Whether or not people want to believe it,the majority of teachers, including myself, are some of the most compassionate, "student-dedicated" and driven people. We do it all for your kids. When I look at some of the evidence in the article, aside from any bias, I think I can see what the teacher was trying to do. He/She just went about it in the wrong way. If you become familiar with the new Common Core Learning Standards, you would understand that the learning objectives are being designed to incorporate all subjects so that there is a continuum of learning. Currently, I teach 7th grade Literacy. However, a significant portion of my curriculum embeds the learning objectives that my students work on in their social studies classes. I think this teacher was trying to teach cross-categorical within a unit on the Civil War or slavery by writing his math questions in a way that students would be familiar with. He/She could have easily changed the wording, but maybe, the current focus in his students' history class is geared towards the violent treatment that slaves received. My father is black and my mother is white, so under different circumstances, I do recognize how offensive this could be. However, I want to find out more about the teacher before we throw the race card at him. Like I said, as a teacher, I feel like we're often misunderstood because of a few rotten apples. I'm not excusing him from blame, but I have to defend his possible attempt to bridge different subjects during a dry subject. (Personal opinion about math ) I used to work for the Denver Post, but I will always contend that teaching is one of the most challenging jobs that you will NEVER understand, unless you join the profession. It looks easy to be the only adult in a class of 35, but when you finally realize the responsibility that is included in finding out how the academic mind of a child works, you'll look at us differently. We are the first ones to be blamed when your kids aren't immediately and consistently thriving, and we are the LAST people to ever be thanked for spending 180 days of the year, 70+ hours a week and our weekends, solely trying to find methods to create opportunities for success, and at the same time, designing learning to be "fun." We are sometimes the ONLY support system available when parents aren't doing their jobs at home. But again, we're paid a measly salary and ridiculed by people that are wealthy. We don't teach for the money, (which is less than what some janitors make) so that's my issue in believing that cruel intentions were involved. If he/she did this maliciously, so be it, and termination is acceptable after apologizing to the students/ school/ parents. If it is discovered that his intentions were good, it's another case of a teacher getting severe treatment without recognition of all that he's done for his class, school and community. Alright, there's my bbs rant of the day. This comes after coffee and a bunch of grading...wrote this without much regard for language. Love ya'll.
Dude, you need to use this site. Someone somewhere has already done the work. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/
I'm well aware of that site. It has good resources...but the work is far from done. Plus, learning doesn't come from using a worksheet.
Yeah, I know it wasn't racially motivated and I actually take more of an issue with any publicly complaining parents; as I think it conditions kids towards unnecessarily questioning or even sabotaging educators. (Other than on obvious safety issues, young children are too selfish and short-sighted to know and choose when to legitimately challenge adult authority.) But the teacher screwed up, the subjects and individual topics are too disparate, and he should have been writing the questions himself: especially math ones.
I wonder if they rode centaurs and chimeras to school instead of buses; cuz, see, that wasn't anywhere in the article either.
So it is okay to read about slaves being killed in slave revolts or whipped, but only while you are studying history? Why does the same content in a math class cause an uproar?
Because the context of a history class is not there to help guide EIGHT year olds through a tremendously difficult topic.
Well, I'm black; spent almost all of my K-12 in the South and no one told me to "get over" anything, so I was lampooning your whiny, dumb racial grousing. You realize public education's the very best thing that's happened to freed black Americans ever, right?
