9-year-old Rhythm Pacheco from Salt Lake City, Utah was given a math question but she refused to answer it because she found it too ‘offensive.
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The question was: “The table to the right shows the weight of three Grade 4 students. How much heavier is Isabel than the lightest student?”
A table next to it shows the names and weights of three female students.
Outraged by the question showing girls’ weights, Rhythm wrote on the paper: “What!!!! This is offensive! Sorry I wont right this it’s rood.”
The 9-year-old student said to Fox 13: “I thought it was offensive. I didn’t like that because girls shouldn’t be comparing each other. I know it was a math problem but I don’t think that was really okay… I didn’t really think that would be on homework, I thought that would be fruits or vegetables or things like that.”
Because she didn’t want to get in trouble for not answering the question, she wrote a short note to the teacher.
It read: “I don’t want to be rude, but I think that math problem wasn’t very nice, I thought that was judging people’s weight. Also, the reason I didn’t write a sentence is because I just didn’t think that was nice.”
Her mother, Naomi Pacheco, also backed her daughter’s opinion. She told Fox 13: “I was shocked, honestly. I feel like it’s such an irresponsible way to teach children how to do math.”
According to the news outlet, the school said the question only intended to provide pupils with practice in converting kilograms and grams.
Eureka Math director Chad Colby said: “There is no value judgement in the question about weight, it’s merely a comparison.”
Colby also said that they have no plans to take the question down the math paper.
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