Ben is doing his homework.
First issue while matching his spelling words to sentences.
"We are going to _______ the turkey." Ben tells me there are no words that will fit. I point out the word carve.
Now Ben thinks Dad is a little crazy, obviously trying to picture whittling a turkey? Maybe imagining a poor live turkey... So now I have to try to explain to a child who has never been at a official turkey carving... Now the poor boy is all mixed up
I knew about cultural bias making the dominant culture look down on those ignorant peons, never experience it from the other side before...
Lucky Dad is multicultural....
Same night homework... Cathy uses 80 wrappers per necklace. She is making necklaces for herself and nine friends. How many wrappers?
Soren and Dad 800. Ben 720. We correct Ben. He comes home the next day teacher marked the problem wrong. She claims 720...
I say if a problem is too hard for teacher, it is too hard for 3rd grader...
Brings back awesome memories of Agua Fria Elementary..
First issue while matching his spelling words to sentences.
"We are going to _______ the turkey." Ben tells me there are no words that will fit. I point out the word carve.
Now Ben thinks Dad is a little crazy, obviously trying to picture whittling a turkey? Maybe imagining a poor live turkey... So now I have to try to explain to a child who has never been at a official turkey carving... Now the poor boy is all mixed up
I knew about cultural bias making the dominant culture look down on those ignorant peons, never experience it from the other side before...
Lucky Dad is multicultural....
Same night homework... Cathy uses 80 wrappers per necklace. She is making necklaces for herself and nine friends. How many wrappers?
Soren and Dad 800. Ben 720. We correct Ben. He comes home the next day teacher marked the problem wrong. She claims 720...
I say if a problem is too hard for teacher, it is too hard for 3rd grader...
Brings back awesome memories of Agua Fria Elementary..
I am reminded tangentially of the story a friend of mine once told of her twin sister: They must have been 4 or 5 years old at the time, her sister was watching the television and then ran into kitchen and asked her dad, "What's a bastid?" The dad patiently explained how sometimes kids are born when the mother and father aren't married and some mean people call those kids "bastards," but it's really not a nice word to use. Why did she ask? Because she was watching a cooking show on TV and the guy said he "bastid the turkey."
ReplyDeleteSo, if "basted" was a choice, that also could have worked,
And if the question clearly stated she was making necklaces for herself AND 9 friends, the answer is indeed 800, and the teacher didn't read the question carefully. It's really two arithmetic operations: 1+9=10 then 10x80=800. Another example of the reason it behooves teachers to print the answer key even when they know the subject cold.
However, my question on cultural assumptions is: How does one make necklaces from wrappers? What kind of wrappers, how are they held together? Isn't that a bit messy? etc?