Gee, I'm surprised he didn't use this as an example, since it's a real scenario and all...If Jeffery Dahmer captured, tortured and sexually abused 7 young men but one escaped how many dead young men would be left? Anyone? Bueller?

WHAT A COMPLETE & UTTER RACIST GEORGIA REDNECK!

Wow. "Racist Georgia Redneck." Really? Based on our representation in Congress, I'd say morons inhabit all 50 states. Racists do too.

LOL No this could not possibly be a public school teacher could it? I am happy we chose homeschooling then.

Luis Rivera, Rredneck?

Who said anything about race? He only mentioned slavery. The white man was enslaved prior and longer the the black man, so don't bring that crap up. Maybe you're the racist due to you being the one crying about it..

gee crash: only 6 posts in and you've managed to make yourself the victim. You're getting slow.

I didn't make myself anything. I just don't like it when ppl cry racism when there's no reason for it.

The questions may be incredibly racist, but that just made them all the more funny. I would have fallen over laughing if I was doing a math test and questions like that came up.

Here is a slavery question to you: Average Joe buy an average house for 200K, 20% down with 4% 30 year mortgage. How much total will he pay with hard earned money at the end of 30 years? Google for "How do banks create money" to understand the modern day slavery.

The only thing stranger than his behavior is the concept of teachers writing their own homework? So, they don't have workbooks in Georgia? They can't afford to translate them into Georgian? Do our teacher unions know about this?

They said 'beaver'.

This teacher already has a much better position lined up in Texas. Texas is so impressed with him that they will double his salary to write all of the math questions to be published in the entire nation's text books.

"The sun is 93 million miles from earth. 6 scientists are appointed to study the effects of man made climate change. Two of them are highly paid by major oil companies to debunk that theory. How many of the scientists will reach the correct conclusion?"

The correct answer is two. Everybody knows that money is far more important than destroying our planet. You go Mr. Rivera. Instead of indoctrinating one small classroom of students each year. You can indoctrinate the students of an entire nation.

Each slave would have to pick 7 oranges.

franku...Here is another one for you....If a borrower under the circumstances you outline pays two extra payments a year...how much interest on the borrowed money does he avoid? Emancipation.

The questions may be incredibly racist, but that just made them all the more funny. I would have fallen over laughing if I was doing a math test and questions like that came up.

Just because it has to do with slavery it doesn't = racism. Its true that African Americans were the last slaves in America, but its the end user who makes the connection, not the questions themselves.

Damn,that's some funny stuff. I hope the kids got a good grade on that assignment.

I wish that this author would tell the whole story instead of just the juicy part. It seems that the school was studying the life of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The teachers in question (there are four of them) were told to build their lessons around the hardships faced by Frederick Douglass during his struggle to abolish slavery. While the questions were offensive to many, they actually did have some bearing on the administrators requirement. Now, the Administration and School Board have started throwing people under the bus for following their stupid curriculum since it blew up in their faces.

For all of you who are yelling about rednecks and racists, all four teachers are minorities and I seriously doubt that any of them qualify as rednecks, racists or tea baggers for that matter.

Louis Rivera? Seriously? A racist Mexican?....I used to hear about racist Mexicans in LA intimidating and harrasing African Americans from their neighborhoods...could not imagine illegal aliens could sneak into my country and start hatin on my neighbors...it sure does confirm the suspicion...some nerves hombres

The black slave was freed 50 years before the russian serf was. Serf someone owned as part of the land not free to leave. As far as racist mexicans anybody who will teach the spanish version of Silent Night to a class full of germans and say nobody but a mexican could possibly understand it ( seriously we wrote it) is a racist and a fool.

Dumb questions to be sure. But, I'd be curious how well the students did. Of course, if the students didn't get the answers right, then it just possibly be that the teacher isn't a very good teacher, which is why he asked the questions in the first place. I'M SO CONFUSED!!!!!!

Fishinfool, are you seriously trying to imply that minorities can't be racist? Wow, really? Is it okay for minorities to be, but it's taboo for whites? How about a world where common decency applies to all.

The teacher must have consulted with Bachmann before posing these gems of a maths quiz. He then must have asked Ron Paul for his imput too..... LOL

How about this quiz..... If you buy 6 guns from an 'un-licensed' dealer, 2 guns from a gun fair dealer, 4 from the trunk of a car, how many times did you have to show your ID?

If 1 man makes 10thousand dollars per year, and another man makes 100thousand dollars per year and a 3rd man makes 1million dollars per year who pays the most of his income in taxes if the tax rate is 9, 9, 9 (a la Cain).

If a govenor served only 1 and a 1/2 years of a 4 year term, how many months was left unserved?

On the other hand why not just set something like this..... If I have 8 apples and I gave 2 to 2 friends, and 1 to 3 friends, and 3 to 4 friends, how many friends do I have? (answer 9 friends)

@Morton,

Luis Rivera some how just doesn't sound like a Redneck name to me ??

had she phase the question...would they said anything...how many minimum wage earners... does it take to earn the ceo enough money for a 2 million dollar bonus at the end of the year...and how many food stamps did it take to feed the worker's...

franku

Here is a slavery question to you: Average Joe buy an average house for 200K, 20% down with 4% 30 year mortgage. How much total will he pay with hard earned money at the end of 30 years? Google for "How do banks create money" to understand the modern day slavery.

Here is a better question for your Franku...If you waited and saved your money for thirty years to buy that house how much more would the house cost, Banks are in business to make money, The people building homes are in business to make money, People selling their homes are hoping to make money, You yourself if you work are working to make money, If you do not want to pay a mortgage then keep paying rent.

Buy a cheaper house, franku. Or scrimp and save and then buy an inexpensive house outright and have no mortgage, like I do.

This follow-up story is missing some important details from the original story, namely that the teacher was attempting a cross-disciplinary approach to his classwork; since the class was studying slavery in American history, he wanted to create math problems along the same subject lines. I want to think that he was just incredibly clumsy and not racist, but of course, unlike some of you, I'm not blessed with the ability to see into his heart.

And just to squash this whole slavery envy subtext that's going through the thread, please keep in mind that American slavery is unique in that it was chattel slavery, in which the enslaved individuals were treated legally and in practice as if they were property. It's also the form of slavery that most immediately impacts the way American society operates today, so it's entirely reasonable that more emphasis is placed on it in our contemporary discourse.

Finally, I have a sucky mortgage myself, but I made a conscious decision to enter into it. That's about the farthest thing from slavery I could imagine. Please try again.

No mention of race, only "slaves".

That is how you teach hate. It is exactly what is done in Muslim countries when they have math question like " twelve of our brave mujadeein kill six cowardly Jewish occupiers and six escaped. What was the total of coward Jews." It is hate pure and simple.

As bad as the teacher's choice of wording is, what's worse is the pitiful salary of $39,170. With the far right railing against teachers and other public sector worker's rights to collective bargain and teacher salaries like that, why do people go into teaching? Does anyone wonder why are educational system is failing our children?

good point MacDeezy, i would have confused them with the "white" slaves that have been in the state since its conception.

oh wait...

Funny that collective bargaining "won" that teacher his salary. Perhaps if we had school choice and tax dollars funnelled into a competitive environment people would earn more as teachers because they would get paid on their and their school's performance and not on what some union hack was able to negotiate for them.

Not sure which country you live in, but the "token black" president we have in the U.S. won 53% of the popular vote. And, you live in a state that takes more in "guv'ment" money than it contributes, so I guess you do like your handouts, after all.

"Hot in Miami" - Aptly named.

Hey Southern Gent. The average pay for 'that area' as you say, is WAY WAY over $39,000. Gwinnett County average income is over $60,000. This is a wealthy suburban county of Atlanta. It is nothing like Eastern Tennessee.

Oh BTW, there are no teachers unions here, so stop listening to Right wing radio and just parroting their talking points. Before you decide to jump into an argument, you should probably do some research

Sick of people sick of the right

First of all Georgia is a right to work state, and second, teachers are forbidden by state law from belonging to unions.

Never won the popular vote?

The problem here is that you think you are a gentleman.

Jack...is that individual earnings or household income you are referencing?

My parents live very near to this school. It's a suburban town just outside the beltway that goes around Atlanta. It's a 20-25 minute drive from downtown Atlanta, so it's not out in the sticks. You can live a decent life on that teacher's income, but it is definitely not a lot of money for the area.

Wow. This Louise Rivera is an asinine human being. He could retrain to be a Cruise Ship Captain in Italy. Or a County Sheriff in Arizona.

To all school districts in 'merka: DO NOT HIRE LUIS RIVERA AS A SCHOOLTEACHER. Nobody gets to use their position as a schoolteacher, to get their rocks off on students by spewing their bigotry, and gets away with it. Not in my Universe. Behave yourself, or else, somebody's gonna MAKE you behave.

Hot-in-Miami: Has anyone told you you're beautiful today?

The same world where my 6 year old's teacher grades the weekly spelling test phonetically.

WOW! I wish I could have said this!!! My thoughts exactly!! I bet he's wondering why he is that stupid!?

The stupid people are the people who made a big deal out of this.

At last. An adult comment.

What the article failed to mention is that he is now working on voter registration for the Georgia Tea Party.

He'll lie and get another job somewhere else because the district won't tell the next district what really happened. They should have fired him before he had time to resign. They should have the balls to tell the next district he was dismissed. I don't want to hear any anti union cr@p because not all teachers are union especially in the south.

What's the point of lying when the whole world knows your story now?

Pederast in SF: I thought you guys had established that only white people are TPers. Does that mean he's got to be working for some Soros funded group?

Devil's son even non-union companies won't give anything more than yes he worked here if contacted it would leave them open to a lawsuit.

And --- what really did he do wrong?

MacDeezy,

Don't be a moron. What other race of people other than black people were systematically enslaved in theUnited States? So because the teacher did not mention the race of the slaves this makes his math questions okay? Clearly you are dumb as this teacher and is it no wonder the US is being surpassed by other countries when it comes to education.

I have to agree with Mac in principle. UK/USA, virtually every race on the planet has been made slaves at some time, either by other races or their own. Africans still make slaves of each other to this day.

However, in the politically correct US, I have to say the guy was a complete moron to even use the word slave. Just goes to show, intelligence has nothing to do with being smart.

Factually, Africans captured other Africans and enslaved them in Africa ...then sold them as exports. By the time Americans came in contact, they had already been enslaved by other Africans.

Sorry to bust your bubble but there is no race that was ever 'systematically enslaved in the United States.'

Easttexas,

Slavery was systemic in the US because white people benefitted economically from this ugly practice and slavery was sytstemic when laws existed to support slave ownership. Don't you remember? The Civil war was not just about freeing slaves, it was also about the economic advantage the South had over the North by having slave labor. Oh! I'm sorry, you're from Texas. where facts don't mean much to you and you're too busy rewriting the history books you hardly read.

easttexas, maybe according to Texas' version of history, all slaves were owned by blacks prior to being owned by whites. But, according to real history, most slaves were captured by whites and forced into slavery. And since they were slaves in the U.S., they were "enslaved" here.

MacDeezy, ask any American elementary student to draw a picture of a slave. The first color crayon to be used will be black. Are you smarter than a 3rd grader?

Really?? So how ya gonna BS away the "Frederick" and the "beatings" question?

Now: to mix the social with the political; this cannot bode well for Gingrich--it's his state.

UK/US ever hear of the indentured servants who came to the colonies from jolly old England 7 years of virtual slavery in exchange for the ticket over. Then their were the lucky convicts sent from English prisons who are the original settlers of Georgia. They didn't have much choice either.

lonereb,

Most did not do this voluntarily for "a ticket over". Most had committed a minor "crime", or had failed to pay a debt, and had been sentenced to indentured servitude by an English court of law.

lonereb-Was going to say the same thing about "indentured servants". Just another name for slavery! They were quite lucky if they survived their servitude and most of them never were "freed" as promised. White slavery has gone on for centuries, still goes on today. Blacks in America did now and then own white slaves. Blacks were enslaving blacks long before there was an America. We just don't have this stuff in our k-12 history books. Women in America were virtually slaves until they got the right to vote 8/26/1920. Domestic rape wasn't even a crime until the late 60's I believe. Guess no one race corners the market on this issue.

Most slaves were captured by whites? Not so much. Most slaves were purchased with goods or treasure from other black warlords and kings.

UK/USA-The South had the economic advantage over the North? How is that??? The souths main products were cotton and tobacco. Ever heard of the industrial revolution?? Wasn't started in the South?!?!?!?!? Commonsense101--Od course a 3rd grader will draw a black 1st when asked to draw a slave. When were they ever taught about any other form of slavery????R U smarter than a 3rd grader???

All other forms of slavery in America involved criminal activity and were extremely minute compared to the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War. There are many examples of slavery for thousands of years in world history. Somehow, slavery of blacks in the U.S.A., for almost a century seem more pertinent to a nation that prides itself on liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness for all.

Slavery in ancient Egypt, Greece and other parts of world occurred thousands of years ago. Seems that a modern nation of 1776 based on individual freedom would not repeat such horrors on a fellow human being. We eventually rectified that problem. That is the most important part of American history students must learn.

Our young people must understand that they are citizens of a great country that made the world a better place. They must also be taught of our many serious mistakes along the way so they never repeat those mistakes. American brothers killing brothers or American fathers killing sons on behalf of wealthy plantation owners must never happen again.

You are just an ignorant waste of life. Seriously.

Actually, he's from Puerto Rico.

Hey to MIKE227, sad ignorance.

Having the name Rivera he should of wrote the questions different..like, how may latino's would it take to bring one ton of pot into the USA if each carried 20 pounds in their pants!

I think USA has so many "drooling idiots," time to return affordable education to the citizens. That's why they still can't figure out that the so called 1%, hasn't done anything to create jobs eventhough since 2002 they've paid low taxes and think teaching kids slavery math is kidda cool. Retarded morons in this country, they cannot see China, Korea and other nations who were 3rd world not that long ago are at the top while we waste time picking on colour, race, guns and a whole bunch of stupid things. Wake up citizens, the latino's are hard working when they come here because most kids and grown ups will not work in the farms anyway. By the way we are now importing ORANGE JUICE, doh! And USA manufacturor's are promoting that slave mentally in China, and we are busy buying the same stuff. Just annoying when you see such ignorance, MIKE227...doh!

Puerto Rico where the spanish enslaved the indians who were much tougher than the cuban tribes who just up and died forcing the spanish to import the blacks. Even chance he is descended from slaves.

The guy provided more than enough fodder for the Political Correctness police. His questions were definitely in poor taste.

Yes BUBBA (lol)! The teachers question would be just as offensive.

Slavery in Egypt (historically not Biblical) happened 4,200 years ago!!! Let's not be foolish.

Ciatta history lesson for you there weren't many or any Puerto Rican slaveholders in Georgia but there were Black slaveholders in Georgia. and bitch Bubba means brother not dummy.

He was hoping to get 7, and 14.

UK/USA is the only one with the right answer to the question!

@spike

So which would have been the lesser evil? White? Black? Those questions were inappropriate, as the teacher admitted, for ANY classroom...comprised of ANY body of students.

I still do not have an answer. How were they offensive, and to whom? Simple question.

Actually some free blacks in America owned black and white slaves.

Sean,

That was not an answer. Just a bunch of rambling.

BTW--the use of "dog", as a form of address, adds nothing to your pseudo-intellectual post.

I have already stated that the problems were stupidly framed. WHAT WAS THE REASON? WHAT POSSIBLE REACTION/RESULT/LESSON WAS DESIRED?

You're a funny mutha fu**a ain't cha? HAHAHAHA

To all of you who blame the south for those Bush idiots they were educated in your schools by you not in our schools by us. So all you righteous yankees they are your fault not ours.

what are you babbling about? You want government to control what kids listen to?

400 years ago? Slaver ended in this country 146 years ago.

Yes, slavery in this country has only been gone for only around four generations ago, and there are still people who have the same mindset of slave owners. People who believe that African-Americans are equal to whites. Things haven't changed as much as they should.

You're right BP because they still like to pull the victim card out at the smallest thing. It makes me sick. Slavery is done, and over with. It's history, learn from it and move on!

Also, I don't think he should have resigned or been forced to resign. If he got hateful letters, and death threats I can imagine from who, and I should just say shame on them. Shame on anyone for knocking him on this. It was poor wording at best. A public apology was provided, get over it. Drop the victim card!

Slavery ended in 1865. One hundred forty seven years ago. Slavery of American women ended 94 years ago when they gained the right to vote.

I am an overly sensitive WHITE guy. This was a well to do school district.

Teaching ONLY the subject of the class and not challenge thinking is so critical to a lot of people.

What would happen if it lead to a race discussion or even the definition of SLAVE.

Isn't Frederick a german name having something to do with being a ruler as all german names with rick in them do. and if it led to a discussion maybe the kids would have learned some history something never learned in history classes. Which is why people on the web don't know anything about presidential election history before 2000 and ask the same stupid questions that were asked and answered in 1968. Otherwise known as ancient history.

The triangle trade now that would make New Englanders squirm in their seats. Since they owned and captained most of the ships involved.

Explained far better than my meager posts.

I am assuming that you teach the same class a number of different subjects. Based on that I see no need to confuse the children with social issues during math class. Math is a difficult subject for most students, therefore the distraction is unwarranted. Slavery and black history should be taught in the proper context where it can be handled correctly. You are defending someone that has shown he should not be in a position where he can influence children. Your defense of him in this matter would cause me to question your suitability as well.

Mic

I see you support the idea mental agility or value in nonlinear thinking will hurt education. Then you will probably be the one saying our education system is horrible.

Mic- You are so right. How dare we as educators teach our children how to apply mathematical concepts to other situations. We should teach our students that math belongs during our math block, reading belongs during our reading block, science belongs during our science block, etc. There is no need to teach our students that curricular concepts are interrelated so when they graduate and enter the real world, they can apply what they have learned across a broad scope of daily occurances. Why should our students need to know that fractions are involved with a variety of jobs such as carpentry? Why teach our students problem solving skills? We need to go back to teaching them rote algorithms and "drill and kill" because this certainly prepares our children for the real world.

We are required to teach our students so many standards in a limited amount of time. Some children enter their current grade level below level, so in order to teach science and SS AND get our students reading and doing on level math, we integrate science and SS. How is it any more difficult for a student to solve "Frederick Douglass collected petitions from 5 cities. If there are about 300 signatures on each petition, about how many signatures does he have in all?" versus "Kate has 5 baskets. If there are about 300 marbles in each basket, about how many marbles does she have in all?" I tie all my curriculum together. It makes so much more sense for the students to see how the different subjects connect, and they see a purpose for their learning which in turn motivates them to learn. They get excited about learning because they begin to see that they can take all that knowledge and solve problems, which is what I have my students do. I give them real world problems to solve using the skills and knowledge they have acquired, and they LOVE it. I was sick one day so I didn't have time to write cross curricular word prolems so I used some generic ones. My students actually commented on how the word problems didn't teach them anything about science or SS. When you make it common place to bring in the outside world, the children come to expect it and enjoy it.

You see, Mic, when we integrate across the curriculum, students learn that there is a real world context for what they are learning. They realize that what they are learning in school can actually be applied outside those 4 classroom walls. Which is what I think we all want our children, our future, to be able to do. However, so many people self-proclaim themselves as education experts because they attended school, yet they really do not know effective teaching strategies. I have been teaching for 13 years, so I am used to people's colorful comments about how education should be or how teachers should teach. But at the end of the day, my parents are thrilled that their kids love coming to school, love the fact that their kids come home and ask to use the computer to research Frederick Douglass or Paul Revere, love it when their kids are helping them cook and they tell their parents that it is a good thing they learned fractions because of the recipe, and are pleased when their kids exceed on the end of year tests.

I am sorry if you had a poor experience with your own education or your children's education. Unfortunately so many people generalize poor educational experiences to all education and continue to keep a closed mind even when they realize that they could possibly be wrong.

From what you say about the public school system I'm so glad that I was educated in the parochial system. Less outside interference just the state standards to meet which we exceeded with less money. Our teachers were allowed to teach. Our smart kids were allowed to help the kids who were behind. We didn't have to worry about every PC trend that came along. See there really is a heaven.

We need to tell our kids the plain truth and all of it. Humans from the first recorded history have been violent and warring. All races have held people in captivity/slavery at one time or another. Why should black slavery in America be a more sensitive subject than black slavery or white slavery in North Africa. Indentured servants were basically slaves owned by others. All of it is BAD (not in a good way) but doesn't make any of it lessor in history. Teach it all.