Today the spotlight for the biggest “Der” cannot be confined to one individual, or even a pair. Today the title of biggest Der goes to a whole county in Georgia. Ok, maybe I am being a little liberal in my awarding; let’s say it goes to the County School District, which governs Gwinnett County.

Parents are slowly finding out just how this district plans to save money this school year, and there are many parents who are shocked and outraged – and who can blame them?

Gwinnett’s answer to the pressing budget question is to combine different disciplines in school, sort of a “kill two birds with one stone,” type of mentality. Ok I can get behind that, and I am sure that many other parents can as well. Two of the subjects that this particular district has chosen to combine are math and social studies – ok that’s cool, maybe you could have problem solving questions involving George Washington and his infamous apple tree incident. However, Gwinnett County has decided that George Washington is not interesting enough so they have thrown some slaves into the mix. That is right boys and girls it’s time to learn about slavery – in a math related sorta way, of course (like that makes it ok??)

Christopher Braxton was one of the first parents who discovered the new learning concept when his 8-year-old son brought his homework in one evening. Braxton’s son, who attends Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Norcross showed the homework to his father. Braxton was flabbergasted.

“It kind of blew me away,” Braxton told ABC News. “Do you see what I see? Do you really see what I see? He’s not answering this question.”

The question was, “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and that is not all.

Another question read, “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?” (Anyone see a pattern here?)

Still another question poised the conundrum of how many baskets of cotton did Fredrick fill?

Braxton said he was furious by this point.

Stephanie Jones, another parent of a child attending the school said, “This outrages me because it just lets me know that there’s still racists.”

Terrance Barnet told a local TV station, “I’m having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts.”

Gwinnett County school district representative, Sloan Roach explained it this way: “In this one, the teachers were trying to do a cross-curricular activity.”

I have news for Gwinnett County, there are some things crossed here indeed, mostly the brain cells of the people who approved this curriculum.