Bellevue college criticizes teacher, math question

[proud2BlibKansan]

Bellevue college criticizes teacher, math question
By Rachel Tuinstra

Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Bellevue Community College Board of Trustees issued a statement Saturday condemning the behavior of an instructor who wrote a racially insulting math question recently brought to the college's attention by students.

The trustees and college officials, some of them connected by conference call, met in closed session Saturday afternoon.

The statement issued afterward said the instructor demonstrated "gross violations of BCC's mission and core value of respect for diversity" and asks that the curriculum and practice of all departments be examined to ensure unacceptable negative stereotypes are eliminated.

The question began, "Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300-foot Federal Building, and tosses it up with a velocity of 20 feet per second." It went on to ask when the watermelon would hit the ground, based on a formula provided.

more . . .

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2002933057_bcc16e.html

[LiberalPartisan]

1. What an idiot!!

Fire his racist patootie!

[Ian David]

2. If he'd said, "Sharpton" instead of "Condoleezza"....

then Bill O'Reilly would have defended him.

[joeybee12]

3. That's not funny, but since it's about Cond-liar...

...I think I'll ignore the slur and let the teacher keep her job.

[Ian David]

5. If he'd said, "wounded soldier" instead of "watermellon," I'd agree n/t

[joeybee12]

11. Yeah, wish this teacher had used something like that...

...it could have been funny and revealed what the teacher thought about Condo-liar without being racist.

[SlipperySlope]

4. Ohhh... That's out of line...

Let me think of some more...

No, nevermind, I better not.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. LOL What a great picture!

[blondeatlast]

6. Curious--has the test been made public?

I'd like to see if persons of some note were used as examples elsewhere in the test?

"...ginorant of the stereotype..."?

I'm having a VERY difficult time with that.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Interesting additional info - from the link

The college has not released the name of the instructor who wrote the question, but it said BCC President Jean Floten said the instructor wants to come forward and publicly apologize. She said the teacher is not known for being politically active and there is no evidence that the teacher's political beliefs played a role in how he worded the question. The teacher was ignorant of the stereotype, Floten said.

"He loves the word 'Condoleezza,' he loves the way it looks and is spelled," Floten said. "There is no political motivation behind this."

Originally, the question referenced Gallagher, a comedian who smashes watermelons and other fruit as part of his act, and was used on a math final about four years ago. The question was rewritten about two years ago to reference Condoleezza and a federal building. As part of common practice, the question was kept on file and used by other teachers to be handed out on practice tests.

[blondeatlast]

10. Okay, gotta admit, I'm laughing a little now.

With that additional info, I can almost believe that said teacher may have been ignorant of the stereotype.

In any case, there's enough room for doubt for me.

For what my judgment is worth, the teacher should stay unless it can be proved he was intentionally insensitive.

I still think it would be interesting to see the rest of the questions, but alas, I doubt that's going to happen.

[SlipperySlope]

12. self-deleted

sorry about that, could be taken the wrong way.

[blondeatlast]

13. In that case, I no longer will carry doubt as to the motivation,

and happily cheer on the firing of the teacher.

That's also why I'd like to see the rest of the test.

C'mon--GALLAGHER?!

With all due respect, I'm not gonna get into a flame war. I have nothing else to say on the matter.

[melissinha]

15. i think the use of a watermelon

really proves he wasn't "ignorant of the stereotype" IMHO.

However, I can honestly see myself using a name like that when I wrote quizzes, I jsut picked what fancied me.... of course, I would have never put the name of a famous balck woman with an watermelon....

[Swamp Rat]

17. Horse puckey!

:eyes:

I think guy figured he could get away with it, but it backfired even though he had constructed an "alibi." :eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Okay you are creative - let's write some Math problems

1. Bill O'Lielly had 3,945,892 viewers last year. Next year, he will have 1,395 viewers. How many viewers will he lose because he is a dipshit hateful asshole?

2. The vice president likes to tell people to 'fuck off'. If he tells 2 people a week to fuck off, how many people will he say this to in 4 years?

[Swamp Rat]

20. LOL!

Can you set up a quadratic formula using Bushler admin officials? :D

1. 3,944,497 x ? cubed

2. All of us.

Did I pass? :D

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. I teach elementary school!!

That problem is WAY over my head. LOL

[wtmusic]

7. Oh man

"Teacher takes career and throws it into the ground with a velocity of 20 feet per second..."

[mrcheerful]

14. Yet not very many people were upset with the MSM showing pics of Katrina

victims. In the first pic is a black guy walking in chest deep water with food and Pepsi, caption under pic, "a looter stealing food from stores". Second pic shows a white couple walking through chest deep water carrying food and water, caption under pic "Katrina victims finding food and water at stores. Yep lets hang this teacher for making shrubs gf look stereo typed.

[EFerrari]

16. Actually, I have heard that comparison mentioned even

in the corporate media.

I think that many people were just too stunned to speak up immediately about it.

But, on the other hand, I've never in my 50 years seen the kind of naked bigotry that we're being exposed to daily in this political climate. It just happens to coincide with a Thug stranglehold on ever branch of government and media . . .

[immoderate]

18. Just how bad is this? I know it not PC and I'd avoid it.

But suppose he said "Shlomo stands on the roof of the Knesseth and tosses a bagel into the air..." or "Pedro tosses a burrito..." How terrible is that?:hide:

BTW, Condoleeza has a real good arm to get a watermelon going straight up at 20 fps, that's 14 miles per hour!

--IMM