Behold The Worst Word Problem Ever Given Junior High Math Students

Teacher disciplined for inappropriate math problem

In what could generously be called “a lapse in judgment” and more appropriately called “not very smart,” a math teacher in Cleveland, Ohio received a written reprimand after giving his students a math problem that involved “nudes.”

Ew.

The father of two 14-year-old students in Daniel Rapp’s math class at Middleburg Heights Junior High School contacted the local news after his kids showed him a photo of the math problem.

The problem reads:”Tony can send 5 texts and 3 nudes in 19 minutes. He could also send 3 texts and 1 nude in 9 minutes. How long would it take him to send one text and one nude?” The math problem was put up on the overhead projector as part of that day’s lesson.

First of all, there’s no way I could figure out that problem, and that makes me feel sad. Second, holy shit, Tony! Four nude photos in 28 minutes? That seems like an absurdly long time that is perhaps filled with second thoughts and self-doubt. Are these all to the same person? If so, you’re going to want to slow it down because I don’t care who you are, there’s only so many dick pics a person can handle. If they are all going to different people, then also stop because I guarantee you three of the four dry-heaved and then showed the photo to their friends. Third, exactly what made an adult feel this was okay to use in a junior high algebra class?

The superintendent of the school district, a decidedly uncomfortable Michael Sheppard, said that a lot of “clarifying” about school rules went on in his discussion with Rapp. “[The district] addressed the teacher and kind of clarified exactly what happened, and in this case provided what [administrators] thought was the appropriate consequence, which was clarification that that was inappropriate,” he said.

Clearly.

Rapp, who Sheppard says is “a good teacher who…used [an] inappropriate word,” is back in the classroom. Sheppard also believes that, in this teacher’s case, a written reprimand was the appropriate consequence. And that may very well be so — maybe he’s a really good teacher who made a really dumb mistake. But then, towards the end of the interview, Sheppard says that there is a written reprimand in his file for a past incident involving the same kind of issue. “There was probably something where he had used an inappropriate word in a class, but I don’t know exactly what that is so I don’t want to speculate.”

Well, I can speculate. And all of it is icky.

Fox6 News in Milwaukee posted the story on their Facebook page, where commenters got down to the real issues:

Now these are the kinds of things today’s youth are wondering about in math class.