Here's a politically correct word problem from my 4th grade son's math book:
"D'Jeran has $23, Becky has $42. Together D'Jeran and Becky have how much money?..."
I would like to know why rich Becky has more money than poor D'Jeran. And what's the likelihood Becky and D'Jeran even know each other, let alone live within walking distance? Is Becky just hanging out with D'Jeran because she wants to upset her daddy?
How did D'Jeran make it into this text book? The apostrophes were confusing to my son, who couldn't read this name. Really I'm not trying to be ugly, but why can't they just name everyone Sam, Jill, Bob or Sue? It's not because I only want my kids exposed to "white" culture (I just moved out of the ghetto - all of my kids' friends were of different backgrounds), it's about using names that the kids can read. This isn't English or World Geography, it's a math book.
Other confusing names out of the book: D'Nae, Anitra, Kazi, Tamira, Talnai, Raziya. I'm sure we'll come across more as we go.
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4 comments:
I think it is funny that they are in a MATH book. I could see having book character with unusual names, because unusual names are so common now, but putting them in a math book just distracts from the subject itself!
Exactly.
I think I'm going to tell Dan that when he comes across names he can't read, to insert the name Bob instead. ;)
Nicely written, especially instead of going straight to the maths business i like the way you elaborated the question to a new dimension like -
"I would like to know why rich Becky has more money than poor D'Jeran. And what's the likelihood Becky and D'Jeran even know each other, let alone live within walking distance? Is Becky just hanging out with D'Jeran because she wants to upset her daddy? "
Plus i liked the concept of putting his own name "Bob" instead of those weird sounding names and with that logic in questions like "D'Jeran loses all his money to D'Nae" , Bob will never loose money :P as he might read it as "Bob loses all his money to Bob" :)
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