March 10, 2008

If a train leaves Mogadishu....

...at 9:17 pm traveling at a speed of 27 mph and another train leaves Cleavland at 4:53 am traveling at 43 mph, what will the temperature be in Caracas in July?



When I was in first grade we had word problems to solve. BabyGirl has word problems to solve.



When I was in first grade the problems read: "Billy has 2 cookies. He gave one cookie to Amy. How many cookies does Billy have now?" or "Jenny has 3 dolls. She got 2 new dolls for her birthday. How many dolls does Jenny have now?" or occasionally "Juan bought 5 donuts at the store. He shared 2 donuts with Ann. How many donuts does Juan have left?"



BabyGirl's word problems read: "Donaphun has three dimes & 1 penny. How much money does Donaphan have?" or "Lucio has 4 pairs of shoes. How many shoes does Lucio have all together?" or "Joaquin had 3 pieces of gum. He gave Natsumi a piece of gum. How many pieces of gum does Joaquin have left?" or "Abdul had two pencils. Kai Lan gave him 4 more pencils. Guillermo gave him 2 pencils. How many pencils does Abdul have now?"



When did this happen? I'm pretty sure there were Guillermos, Abduls, and Joaquins 25 years ago. Why did we only get Ann, Billy, and Jenny? And what happened to pour Juan...it took us all of first grade to learn how to pronounce his name correctly, and they just dumped him?

6 comments:

Brando said...

I feel you pain sister. It doesn't get any better in the 3rd grade.

Inkling said...

I don't know how to help you, but I do know that Abdul lives in my parents' basement. He used to be a member of those CD clubs, along with my brother. I'm serious. My parents probably still get a few things addressed to Abdul. Baby Brother was creative. What a way to get the deals multiple times over. Make up a fictional character, give him your last name, and have him living in your parents' basement. The only thing I know is that Abdul never gave me a birthday gift, and I'm pretty sure he didn't come to our wedding. But he owns a lot of really good music.

Jeni says said...

i noticed the exact same thing the other night while doing homework with my kids.... so funny

Queen Mother said...

yeah, well, were is Dick and Jane and how come there is no Running Bear?

Anita said...

The bigger question here, is.. What happened to Ann, Billy and Jenny?

Kork said...

Ann, Billy and Jenny are probably in the math books in Mogadishu, Iran, and Venezuela and parents there are shaking their heads about why their little Kai Lin, Abdul, and Joaquin are getting word problems about American children...

Seriously though...do children really care if their word problems are diverse? Do the Joaquin's of the elementary school underground lie awake at night and plot about how to get more ethnicity into our curriculum?

That opens a whole can of worms now, doesn't it???