Source: Reuter

Drugs, sex and gangs are new math problems in Texas


By Kieran Murray
DALLAS (Reuter) Six Texas high school teachers tried a
different approach to get their students' attention by quizzing
them on the mathematical problems inherent in a life of drugs,
gangs, violence and sex.
Instead, the experiment in urban math sparked a storm of
protest and all six teachers were suspended.
Dwain Dawson, principal at the Elsie Roberts High School in
the Dallas suburb of Lancaster, said Tuesday that math
department head Scott Martin was suspended for 60 days and five
other teachers were each suspended for 30 days, all without pay.
Last Thursday, when classes resumed following summer
vacation, the teachers handed out a joke worksheet that included
the following questions:
Hector has knocked up six girls in his gang. There are 27
girls in the gang. What percentage of the girls in the gang has
Hector knocked up?
Johnny has an AK47 with an 80round clip. If he misses
six out of 10 shots and shoots 13 times at each driveby
shooting, how many driveby shootings can he attempt before he
has to reload?
Jerome wants to cut his halfpound of heroin to make 20
percent more profit. How many ounces of cut will be needed?
Rufus is pimping for three girls. If the price is $65 for
each trick, how many tricks will each girl have to turn so Rufus
can pay for his $800 per day crack habit?
``They should never have used the test,'' Dawson said. ``It
was a poor professional decision and it's unacceptable.''
Martin apologized Tuesday for upsetting the parents of
students at the school, but said he had used the test in the
past for classes with difficult students and had received no
complaints.
``It was intended as an icebreaker, of letting kids know
that we have a sense of humor and a sense of what goes on in the
world,'' Martin said.
``None of us would sanction the kinds of behavior described
or say they are appropriate. We simply acknowledge that those
kinds of behavior exist and that we are aware of them,'' he
said.
The worksheet was titled ``City of Los Angeles High School
Math Proficiency Exam'' and appeared to have been informally
circulated as a joke among teachers at schools across the
country in recent years.
It was not known how well the Dallas students scored on the
test.
^REUTER@