Whatever happened to the old days where math problems involved counting sheep? A teacher, Jane Youn, at NYC’s P.S. 59, assigned her student teacher a worksheet of slavery math problems to give out for homework.
Aziza Harding, Youn’s student teacher, was disgusted by the math problems and NY1 got involved. The math problems included ones like “On a slave ship, there can be 3,799 slaves. One day, the slaves took over the ship. 1,897 are dead. How many slaves are alive?” and “One slave got whipped five times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month (31 days)? Another slave got whipped nine times a day. How many times did he get whipped in a month? How many times did the two slaves get whipped together in one month?” The student teacher tried to replace it with another assignment but it had already been given to students earlier in the day. Youn is being investigated.
