Can someone explain why this is in a fourth grade textbook?

Argh, I am beginning to hate school. Public school, private school, it's all the same.

This was in Yasmeen's homework:

The principal keeps a dish of mints on her desk. She offered a piece to
Sebastian when he turned in $3 he found on the playground. Half of
the mints in the bowl had red wrappers. Without looking he grabbed
a piece with a yellow wrapper. His chances of doing that again were 3
out of 23.
Use the information above to write a reasonable description of the
principal’s bowl of mints.

First of all, Sebastian should have given the principal a piece of his mind. With three dollars, he could have bought a whole bag of candy!
Second, this is probability and statistics. When you are 9 years old, you want more than one mint, not to figure out how you got the candy that probably has a yucky flavor anyway. (Banana mint? Bleh!) Probability and statics was a college class for me. I didn't like it then. I still don't.
Finally, why does a 4th grader need to know how to do this?
I wanna beat somebody up.
Who are we competing against? Standardized testing nightmares, designed to put the US students ahead of whom? The Chinese?
I have a number of Asian friends. Still I don't want my kid to be competing against this sort of societal norm, where academics is ranked above family time and being a kid. Humanity and fun is important to me, for me, and especially for Yasmeen.

And if you agree this problem is BS, well, she has about 10 other pages left to do of other homework. And we started at 2:00 this afternoon.

I hate it. I am thinking of homeschooling for our sanity! No child left behind is really NO CHILDHOOD!!!


Yasmeen is not a can of generic peas!!! Click here to see what I mean.

Let's take a peek at the Fox News Tweaks

Peace and greetings to everyone!

Well, yes I had a moment of something sorta like ego, because I was interviewed at the rally. But I woke up at 4:00 am with something on my mind about it.

FOX, you weren't very fair!!!!

First of all, the rally at the King Center was an INTERFAITH RALLY. It opened with an Islamic prayer, followed by a Christian prayer, then a Jewish prayer, and representative of the city spoke in prayer and then another reading which included a beautiful poem and prayer. The people chosen to speak were there not because they were Muslims or even because the all had family ties to Egypt, but because they care about what is happening there and around the world. We came there to pray for peace. PEACE.

But in the interview, only the Muslims who were willing to go on camera were represented. Not fair, FOX. It was interfaith. The tiny shot where I looked a little teary was because the Jewish woman, Audrey Galex, told the story of how when she was in college, she went to Egypt to study for a year to "learn about her enemy, and that with in hours, even, she had found not an enemy but friends". FRIENDS. So, she had come to pray for peace and understanding between all faiths, and for the Egyptian people who are fighting for democracy.

Al hamdulillah, I was so proud of Sister Soumaya, who has been my friend, adviser, and yes, who is an Egyptian American with a beautiful family here in the Atlanta area. But as the director of the ISB, and who is as much into interfaith networking as I would like to be, I am sure that in the two times she was interviewed and in all the recordings of the service, there was more than just her Egyptian connection that she spoke about.

I know that the first thing I said, when asked why I was there was what I have been saying for weeks now, since Tunisia's uprising. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." (Dr. MLK, Jr.) I spoke about my Atlanta roots, my strong India connection, my work in Morocco. It was only when asked if I had any particular ties to Egypt that I mentioned the former spousal unit. (To be honest, I don't hate him. I just don't like him very much! Hard to like someone whom you haven't seen in almost 8 years, right? Especially when you share the parentage of a nine year old, and she has no clue of anything about him, including what financial and parental support from him would even look like. But I digress....)

I am glad that the piece got a bit of coverage, in front of the King Center, beside the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. But I am disappointed that they didn't focus on the interfaith aspect. Rather, it seemed like, "Well, we care because we have family there". When I was in 4th grade, I built a pyramid. I shared my King Tut book with the class. I have cared about Egypt since before I became Muslim and before I had any sort of relational ties.

I am a child of folks who grew up through Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement. I care now because we have to care about what happens on the planet. It's not about being American, Indian, Moroccan, Chinese, Israeli, Brazilian, etc. It's not about being Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, etc. It's about caring because when one group fights for basic human rights, we must support them and hope for a positive trickle-down effect.

It's about the dreams: from before "I Have a Dream" and past "Dreams of My Father."

It's about the dreams for our children that wherever they are, they will have a voice, freedom, democracy, education, employment, honor, love, peace.

I went to an interfaith gathering. Don't let the news report make it appear that the Muslims were the only ones to speak.

OH. And back to the ego for a second.

I made it very clear that my name is Carmen Pai Daschke. That last name is TWO words. TWO. No hyphen. Goobers.

I am sticking to FOX only to watch HOUSE from now on. Wait, watch that online. Never mind.... >:|

(in case you have NO IDEA what I am going on and on about, watch here: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=499224790671&comments)

Just because it's not my flag doesn't mean I don't want to see it wave as a symbol of freedom and justice....