'If Fred got two beatings per day...': The 'outrageous' slavery-themed math quiz

Angry parents in Georgia protest after their third-graders are assigned homework questions about whippings and forced crop picking

Controversial homework
(Image credit: JGI/Jamie Grill/Blend Images/Corbis)

A Georgia school has sparked controversy by giving third-grade students "outrageous" slavery-themed math homework, with questions like: "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week? 2 weeks?" Several furious parents complained to the school, Beaver Ridge Elementary near Atlanta. "I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem," says one irate dad. Administrators say the questions were just one teacher's "inappropriate" attempt to blend social studies into math homework in a "cross-curricular" experiment. Is there any excuse for treating slavery so lightly?

This is racist, pure and simple: These questions are a terrific way to tackle two subjects at once, says Howard Portnoy at Hot Air, provided "the two disciplines being tested are math and racism." In this age of "sensitivity and tolerance," it defies credulity to claim this was the work of "a well-meaning but dimwitted educator." This teacher was deliberately trying to be "provocative."

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