Re: Censorship? or Common sense??
John M Lowe (jlowe@INFOAVE.NET)
Mon, 16 Sep 1996 01:15:39 -0400
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?
>
I agree with Weinsteen and Pulman both. Soften the question to acknowledge a
hopefully better future but who knows what young student may be prompted to
action by a question on a math test?