9-year-old refuses to answer math question that compared girls' weights in homework assignment: 'This is offensive'
MURRAY, UTAH: A nine-year-old girl has refused to answer a question on her mathematics paper because she found it to be "offensive". Instead, she wrote her teacher a letter explaining why she had a problem with the question.
According to Salt Lake County fourth-grader Rhythm Pacheco, a math problem in her homework assignment asked her to shed light on a young girl's perspective on body image.
"The table to the right shows the weight of three Grade 4 students. How much heavier is Isabel than the lightest student?", the question read, which appalled Rhythm.
"What!!!! This is offensive! Sorry I wont right this it's rood [sic]." she wrote on the paper, circling the question, instead of answering it.
Concerned that she would get in trouble, "because we get graded on this", Rhythm decided to write her teacher a letter in addition to the short message on her math worksheet.
"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," she wrote in the letter.
She added to Fox13: "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," she added.
Naomi Pacheco, Rhythm's mother, said that she was "shocked" to find out about her daughter's assignment. "I feel like it's such an irresponsible way to teach children how to do math," Naomi said. "It was comparing girls' weights."
However, the mother was glad that her daughter's teacher took her side. "Her teacher was so responsive and spoke to her about it and supported her decision," Naomi said.
"This isn’t about the teacher, the school, or anything — we love our school and our community. What it’s about is children being taught this everywhere, that it’s okay to make direct comparisons with weight," she added.
Melissa Hamilton, the Murray City School District Director of Elementary Teaching and Learning, however, did not agree with the nine-year-old's concern.
"The problems right before that talked about watermelons, and then the problem before that, a Saint Bernard," Hamilton said.
"So, 4th-grade student, 4th-grade problem. I can certainly see if a 4th-grade student did misconstrue that question. However, in math curriculum, [it] wasn't about body image — the question was about moving kilograms to pounds."
He added that the district was determined to use the same curriculum given its proven success rates in other states.
Eureka Math's Director of Marketing Communications Chad Colby told Fox13: "There is no value judgment in the question about weight, it's merely a comparison. It sounds like the parent is putting the value judgment on it, not the question."