A Luther Burbank High School freshman was surprised to read his full name included on a biology final. Not only that, but he was being ridiculed. “In high school, there are individuals who are cross-eyed like (the name of a fellow student) and (the name of the student previously mentioned), which is a dominant trait. We call those individuals ‘weirdoes’. So, if you crossed two weirdoes (the two students named again), that are heterozygous for being cross-eyed, what is the offspring that would result?” Many students in the class were targeted by first and last name on the exam. Teacher Alex Nguyen chose to describe these students by their ethnicities and physical features, and then paired them up, posing questions about what traits a theoretical child of these two students would have. On one question, the teacher wrote a disclaimer, saying “in no way do I promote students being sexually active,” but the student’s parents and other teachers at the school said that the implication of any sexual relationship between students is inappropriate.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    961·
    4 months ago

    “For some reason, the African American culture has influenced most of the student body. How? In African Americans, they have a gene for the pimp walk, which is dominant. What is the result if you cross (student name) homozygous dominant Latina with a homozygous recessive Hmong like (student name)?”

    The question goes on to refer to the dominant trait as walking with a limp and the recessive trait as normal.

    The teacher also claimed falling asleep in class was dominant.

    And all the examples seem to be the same basic question, just different insults shoehorned in.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
      223·
      4 months ago

      Sounds like they were trying to test students on how dominant/recessive genes work, but trying to make jokes so it’d feel relatable. But the jokes are just not funny at all. You have to be REAL close to someone for that to be a joke instead of an insult.

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
        63·
        4 months ago

        To me it sounds like none of us have context, and although inappropriate I suspect it’s far less devastating to the kids being tested than it would be to outside observers imagining themselves in the kids shoes.

        My senior year had a teacher who slipped in a bunch of insider knowledge “material” into their exams to see who was paying attention/wasn’t there that day (“this ocean current should not be confused with this similarly named walk that we used to do when I was in school, if you see it spelled this incorrect way it’s the walk and not the current” (only without the latter qualifier), if any of you have ever taken this class, and didn’t miss lecture that day, you’ll know exactly which high school I went to and who’s class I’m talking about, hit me up!)