FTFA:
Why are you blaming the teacher? Sure it was a poor choice, but making it required a whole bunch of other people to make worse choices earlier.
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Actually click through long enough and you can get more than the 5 blub snip:
Boys:
-Make plans for the date and let the girl know what they are doing.
-Have creative ideas for the date.
-Use good manners: table manners, open the door for her, no gross noises, chew with your mouth closed, introduce her to your friends.
-Don’t gripe about the money you’re spending or don’t have.
-Don’t spend to much time talking about things she isn’t interested in or about yourself.
-Don’t exaggerate to your friends about what happened on the date.
-Dress for the occasion, like you care about her: appropriate clothes, clean, a little cologne, nice breath
-Be prepared for the date (vehicle gassed and ready).
-Be on time (or call if you can’t be on time)
-Give compliments when they are sincere.
-Don’t feel entitled to kiss (or more).
-At a restaurant, say what you are going to order so she will have a guide in ordering.
-Don’t comment or be concerned with how much she is or isn’t eating.
-Be honest.
-Don’t use vulgar language or swear.
-It’s okay to show your feelings.
-Look out for her well being on a date, be considerate.
-Don’t talk about, flirt with, text or check out other girls when on a date.
-Have a sense of humor, have a good time.
-Keep up your end of the conversation, listen and respond.
-Girls like flowers and little gifts.
-Be respectful to her parents.
-Have her home on time.
-Don’t drive recklessly.
-Show respect for her.
My god the horror, what a monster that young man must be.
And unironically
-Show respect for each other
-Keeping up your end of the conversation
are on both. I’ve been married 13 years and a lot of these seem reasonable.
And since I know you asked, the full girls:
-If you don’t want to go out with a guy, tell him, don’t make up excuses.
-When you are asked for a suggestion give one (don’t say I don’t care).
-Help plan the dates sometimes.
-Eat the food you order, don’t waste his money.
-Don’t be overly concerned with how much or how little he is spending.
-Don’t worry about your appearance the whole date: Don’t keep checking in the mirror fixing your hair, Don’t fish for compliments, If you think you’re to fat keep it to yourself, Show him you enjoy being with him, Sit next to him, Don’t stay in the bathroom forever, Talk to him more than the girl you double with or others.
-Dress appropraitely for the date.
-Be feminine and lady-like, don’t use vulgar language and swear.
-Show respect for him.
-Be ready on time.
-Don’t talk about, flirt, text, or check out other guys when on a date.
-Don’t expect love or commitment when the date is meant to be casual.
-Have a sense of humor, have a good time.
-Keep up your end of the conversation, listen, and respond.
-Don’t correct or comment on his personal habits.
-Give compliments when they are sincere.
-Give him a chance to be gentlemanly.
-Keep to your standards.
-Don’t criticize his drive (unless it’s not safe).
-Relax and be yourself.
I don’t mind having highschool children be exposed to Angelou’s past and encouraged to think about how being abused in childhood might shape someone’s experience. I do think bringing it up as trivia trivializes it. In the format, the question could have just as easily been about the colour of her abuser’s eyes. As if that’s what we ought to be thinking about.
(ETA: Speaking of being offensive)
If this recently article is any indication:
It would cover a daily dose of PrEP from India with enough left over for two or three condoms. Potentially a hell of a date. (I am sending a very different message to highschool kids)
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I am offended that the question assumes that only heterosexual males can be sexual abusers.
Most of those points, taken individually, are plain good advice for interacting with people, or at worst completely innocuous. The problem (well, one of the problems) is splitting them into gendered roles - boys drive, girls like little gifts, girls constantly criticize and worry about facile things like their appearance, etc.
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Or, perhaps, that we are more likely to remember the sex of the individual who abused her than we are to remember the relationship that individual had to her mother?
But yes, it’s super heteronormative, which is normally bad but is downright absurd when you are talking about sexual abuse of children which I don’t think has anything to do with being homo- or heterosexual.
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My anecdotal experience tells me most of them are correct. My wife would love to get flowers from me and she criticizes my driving. Obviously YMMV…but I think it’s a fairly reasonable guide to a date for teens. For adults I’d assume a lot more agency and individualism would shine through as the inexperience and awkwardness is replaced by confidence in what you want.
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Teen girls don’t have cars? Teen boys don’t whine or constantly fret about their appearance? There are no LGBTIQ teens?
Edit: here’s a thought. Drop the gendered list titles, get rid of the stupid items or the ones that just throw back to a different era, homogenise the gendered items, consolidate it all into one list, and call the whole thing “Things to do (and some things to avoid) when you’re out with someone you’ve just met”
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You’re right. The more I think about it the more I’m convinced that while it’s not immediately dangerous by itself, it is another piece of a larger puzzle. My initial objection (that it’s an idiotic and illogical way to frame the math problem) is now joined by another objection, which it that it indeed does trivialise what is an important issue, and therefore one that should be discussed professionally with students (and the rest of us).
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Sure they do. But the ratio of people who believe they driving skills are on par with Initial D skews heavily toward the men.
Maybe things are different now? In the 90’s we had grunge and alternative… And I was the nerdy outcast anyway, I didn’t really care what people thought about how I looked. (and how my wife cringes at those early dating photos…)
You can always find that girl who’s really into cars or the guy who is obsessed with his appearance, but the generalities have served me well enough. I don’t make assumptions about people, but most people do tend to fall into categories.
I like it. But then you wouldn’t have a click baity article… 
Getting those jeans to have just the right amount of rip doesn’t happen by accident, you know. Talking passionately about the lyrics to Tonight, Tonight isn’t something you learnt at your mother’s breast. We all care about our appearance.
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Yeah, exactly - especially in a context like this where it can’t be anything other than trivia because it’s an unrelated class, thus precluding any kind of discussion about it. If there was discussion about this in the English class, then presumably the information came up there as well, making this redundant.
All this seems to do is provide the information while preventing students from talking about it, which is highly problematic. This is information you want to be part of a bigger discussion, not meaningless trivia divorced from context, which it necessarily is in a math class. (On the other hand, if this was just trying to reinforce biographic details learned in English class, it creates another problem - students being able to answer math questions without having to know how to do the math.)
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Not only is this subject matter inappropriate for math class, but uh - so you if you know a lot about the biography of the subject, you don’t even NEED to know the math? Is that what I am seeing here o_0?
Man, if we had a Star Wars/Calculus class where the correct answers were linked with Star Wars Trivia I would be getting an A!
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That’s funny 
but apparently the quiz is from an “Adult Roles and Financial Literacy” class … which just raises a whole bunch of different questions. Like, WTF does algebra have to do with either ‘Adult Roles’ or ‘Financial Literacy’?
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You’re right. The cross-class issues make it more egregious. This appears to be a half-assed and shitty way to link courses. There’s merit in that idea in general (at university it always surprised me how much calculus people could forget on the short walk from mathematics to engineering and physics classes), but in this case it gets an F. It trivialises an important issue, does so in a forum that does not allow easy dissent regarding this, and remains an idiotic way of framing a maths problem.
I started here not too bothered by it, but the thoughtful posts here have changed my mind.
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Is this an image of the actual test? If so, why is a math teacher quizzing on literature using math? It makes no sense - and I haven’t even had my second glass of wine…
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The teens I know – male and female – would laugh their heads off at all the assumptions about what they’re supposed to care about.
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Exactly, being able to plug in each of the three multiple choice values for x and y does not mean the student can actually solve the equations.
The problem ought to be:
If x = y - 1 and y = -4x + 21, then
x= ____
y= ____
My guess is that what happened here is that some drone in the school administration sent out a memo requiring that “all lesson plans must contain material relevant to the experience of minority students” or words to that effect. Pretty hard to do that when your subject is simultaneous linear equations.
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Another way of looking at it is that you’re giving the non-maths kids a way to answer the question without doing the maths, and the yes-maths kids a way to answer it without doing the reading.
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The boys should have one that says “If she says no, accept it and move on” because in my experience THAT is why we don’t just say “no thanks”. Because it doesn’t actually work.
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