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A teacher in Georgia included slavery word problems on a math worksheet. Is this simply a case of poor judgment or is there more to the story?

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CommenTerry

So teachers at Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Gwinnett County, Georgia, thought it would be a good idea to spice up a math worksheet with ... wait for it ... slavery word problems. Questions included the following:

"Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"

"If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?"

"Frederick had 6 baskets filled with cotton. If each basket held 5 pounds, how many pounds did he have all together?"

Understandably, the questions upset a few parents in Gwinnett County, a suburban county outside of Atlanta. The president of the Georgia NAACP demanded that district officials fire the teacher(s) responsible for writing and disseminating the worksheet. Christopher Emdin, assistant professor of science education at Teachers College, Columbia University, went one step further. He recommended that school districts should conduct "ongoing professional development on race, class and gender issues in schools" and "focus on the causes for race issues in classrooms."

But I believe that there is something else that underlies the issue. In an article appropriately titled "The dumbest third-grade assignment ever?", a writer from Salon.com observed,

Using social studies as a springboard for math is actually a great idea. And making classroom lessons dynamic with real-world context is a time-tested device to teach children the ways numbers are applied in life.

The idea of integrating social studies or "real world" lessons into math problems is not a "time-tested device," as she claims. Rather, the origins of the idea can be traced to a generation of educational theorists who, from the late 1970s to the 1990s, urged teachers to use math to indoctrinate kids in liberal, even socialist, ideologies. It is called "ethnomathematics," "liberatory mathematics," and "critical mathematics."

In general, ethnomathematics is grounded in the ideas of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian writer whose books like Pedagogy of the Oppressed have become required reading in most graduate schools of education. Freire argued that students are oppressed and teachers are (or perpetuate the ideology of) the oppressors. As such, he believed that the ideal educational situation is a cooperative one. Student and teacher were to construct knowledge together in an act of "praxis," whereby they "act together upon their environment in order critically to reflect upon their reality and so transform it through further action and critical reflection." By the way, this is the origin of the idea that teachers should be a "guide on the side," not a "sage on the stage."

Like teachers in other disciplines, mathematics teachers could initiate praxis by using instruction as a means of critical reflection to "transform" reality. Marilyn Frankenstein and Arthur B. Powell write,

Indeed, educational acts, and no less those of mathematics education, are powerful engines to maintain and reproduce and to critique and transform personal, social, economic, and political structures and other cultural patterns. ... As ethnomathematical knowledge forces us to reconsider what counts as mathematical knowledge, it also forces us to reconsider all our knowledge of the world.
-- "Toward liberatory mathematics: Paulo Freire's epistemology and ethnomathematics," 1994

According to Frankenstein and Powell, oppressive structures -- economic and social stratification, racism, sexism, elitism, and Eurocentrism -- keep "school" mathematics separate from "everyday" mathematics. Their theory postulates that exposing kids to "everyday" mathematics will reveal the economic and political oppression that they likely failed to identify. Praxis is sure to follow.

I suspect that these theories are at the heart of the controversy in Gwinnett County. In this case, the teacher highlighted historically oppressive structures that, the teacher hopes, will resonate with students at they complete their math homework. A Freirian math teacher would point out that slave masters used math for evil purposes -- to gauge the productivity of slaves and to administer punishment. The numerical answers to the questions are less important than the lesson that math has been used as a tool of oppressors.

Of course, we have no information about the teacher who wrote the questions. This may be a case of simply exercising epically poor judgment. Nevertheless, I am not ready to dismiss the possibility that this math teacher is a devout adherent to those who trained teachers to incorporate Freire's theories into math instruction.

Random Thought

I think Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow deserves praise for his performance against my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. However, Tebow supporters who think that his yardage total for the game (316) was a divine reminder of the famous Bible verse (John 3:16) are silly. His spirituality speaks for itself.

Of course, Tebow supporters would be at a loss to explain a completion percentage of 66.6 percent. Given his passing woes, a completion percentage that high would be a legitimate miracle.

Facts and Stats

The answers to the slavery word problems, in order, are seven oranges, 14 beatings, and 30 pounds.

Mailbag

I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at tstoops@johnlocke.org.

Education Acronym of the Week

NCTM -- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Quote of the Week

"Clearly, they did not do as good of a job as they should have done. It was just a poorly written question."
-- Sloan Roach, Gwinnett County Public Schools executive director of communications and media relations, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Click here for the Education Update archive.