Atlanta school district investigates math homework on slavery

NORCROSS, Georgia (AP) = Suburban Atlanta school officials are deciding whether to discipline teachers who gave third-grade students math homework with word problems about slavery...

TheGrio Staff

Jan 10, 2012

NORCROSS, Georgia (AP) — Suburban Atlanta school officials are deciding whether to discipline teachers who gave third-grade students math homework with word problems about slavery.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has called for the firing of the nine teachers involved.

One of the math problems reads: “Each tree has 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?”

Another was: “If Frederick got two beatings each day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”

Gwinnett County schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said Monday that the district is working with the school principal to address the problem after parents complained about the worksheets. She says the district wants to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Roach said the questions attempted to incorporate what students had been discussing in social studies with their math.