Re: Censorship? or Common sense??
Bret Taylor (bret@IAG.NET)
Fri, 13 Sep 1996 16:31:00 EDT
At 03:42 PM 9/13/96 -0400, you wrote:
>I have a question about ethics for you folks.
>
>In my role as a math coordinator, I have written a set of standard exams used
>in our math lab.
>
>My Dean has asked that I change an item on one form of a test, because
>it might be offensive.
>
>Here's the item: (with minor changes to the numbers)
> The life expectancy for whites in the US can be modeled by the
> expression 0.18t + 69, where t=0 is January 1950. The life
> expectancy for blacks can be modeled by 0.21t + 61. In what
> year will the life expectancy for whites and blacks be the
> same in the US?
>(If you are curious, the problem is based on data that I downloaded from
>the Census database on the Web.)
>
>What do you think? Is my Dean's request "censorship", which should be
>resisted? Or, is the request "just common sense", which I should follow?
>
>Thanks for any 'wisdom' you can pass along!
>
> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< from >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> Jack Rotman phone (517)483-1079
> Math Professor
> Lansing Community College Lansing, MI
> internet: ROTMAN@ALPHA.LANSING.CC.MI.US
> "Like all art & science, mathematics surrounds us."
> <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Math Success ! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
Boy, will I be interested in the responses you get on this one!
If you changed "white" to "Caucasian" and "black" to "African American"
would that help? (Or would that also invalidate the data?)
Haven't we gotten a little overly sensitive in some areas of political
correctness? (Last year I had a student go to the President of my
institution and accuse me of sexual harrassment because I used a memory
device (sorry, I forgot how to spell 'knee-mon-ick') in which I was teaching
the 11 field axioms and I referred to the ring finger as the "identity"
finger because that is where you wear your wedding band. This was a tool I
have used since I learned it in high school in the 60's, but I no longer can.)
Oh well, 'nuff said.
Bret Taylor Lake-Sumter Community College Leesburg FL
"It matters not the subject taught, nor all the books on all the shelves.
What matters more, yes most of all, is what the teachers are themselves."
John Wooden
John 3: 3 3