School Homework Math Assignment Refers To Slavery

As far as trying to do a cross-curriculum effort - a big part of the problem is when you start having a problem like "if Fredrick Douglass got 2 beatiings per day . . ." the tone is all wrong. When you are talking about human beings getting a beating you don't start calculating them up coldly . . .but I remember one of the best parts of his autobiography being the part where his mother used to come and see him at night from the other plantation. The owner she had didn't mind if she came after her work was done and it was very sweet that she fought through the terrrible situation she was in to still have & keep something of that relationshp with him.

I remember talking with my own kids about how she must have been a very strong person & it shows where he got some of his enormous strenth of character . . .they might have been able to use that part of his story with a better & healthier tone. For instance: "if Fredrick Douglass' mom had to walk 3 miles to see him each way how many miles did she walk in a week?"

I still think geography and/or U.S. History would be a better cross-curricumum effort, but it could have been done with math better if they had really wanted that.