News of the “slavery math problems” assigned to 8-year-olds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, a few days ago, has left the entire country in disbelief. Parents, educators and the general public are wondering how any qualified teacher could have posed these questions. I am perturbed by the fact that these questions were posed by a school system that prides itself on valuing ”the important role education plays in building a thriving, global community” and having “the finest teachers in the profession.”
It seems as though the homework assignment was part of a longer narrative that led to specific homework questions like, “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and “If Frederick [who apparently was a slave] got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”
While most people have rightfully taken offense to the references to slavery and beatings in the math homework problems, what I have found more problematic than the homework assignment is that there seems to have been some precursor to assigning these math problems. Other math problems along these lines may have been posed in the class, and students may have had to answer these types of questions before they took home the math assignment that parents discovered.
