In its latest wild goose chase, the Bucks County, PA chapter of the NAACP has called for severe disciplinary action for one middle school teacher.

Matthew Curran, an eighth-grade math teacher at Lenape Middle School, has found himself at the mercy of a laughingly, mighty civil rights juggernaut after assigning students, what some are deeming, as “racist” math homework.

The lesson, solving equations using multiplication and division, seemed normal enough; the uproar actually surrounds a picture on the assignment, which is of a scruffy, unshaven, Black man donning a straw hat, with his mouth open wide, exposing a lack of teeth. Under the picture, a caption reads ”NO WAI!!!”

Parents of the offended Black student, Lanape's principle, Nick Chubb, and NAACP president John Jordan met to discuss the picture which the organization has publicly denounced as being “insulting” and “disparaging” in nature.

“I believe the meeting was productive, and we're working toward a resolution,” said Chubb to the media.

The group settled on “consequences” for the teacher and racial sensitivity training for all staff members.

It is safe to say that this entire ordeal was nothing less than a superior lesson in how to waste time, effort, and energy properly.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People…

A 21st century joke. . .

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that children in the United States do not show signs of losing intelligence, but they're not getting any smarter either. In a study released Tuesday, Duncan says students who show no signs of intellectual
growth will have difficulties competing in a global market.

According to CNN, the study done by National Center for Education statistics compared 15-year-old students in the U.S. to those in other countries in the Organization for Economic Development.

The report shows that U.S. students scored the lowest in Math and Science. With Math in particular, U.S. high schoolers scored in the bottom quarter of all the countries that participated, including Finland, China and Estonia.

The report also showed that U.S. students who tested in 2003 scored the same in 2006. In short, while other countries are improving, the U.S. remains at a standstill. In Science, U.S. students fell behind Canada, Japan and the Czech Republic.

Duncan stood before a room full of science and math experts of the National Board Tuesday morning and is convinced the U.S. will fall short when competing internationally. "We are lagging the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways," he said.

"I think we have become complacent. We've sort of lost our way."

Duncan was quick to admit that the U.S. is in great need of good Math and Science teachers. He suggested that in order to fix the problem, "I think we should pay math and science teachers a lot more money. We pay everybody the same. We have areas of critical need -- math, science, foreign language, special education in some places. I think we need to pay a premium for that."

The National Education Association, which represents educators, strongly disagrees with such a proposal.

"Simply being a teacher of a hard-to-staff subject does not equate with effective instruction, and therefore, should not be rewarded in-and-of-itself through a salary differential," the organization says in a position statement.

The fourth and eight graders who tested in mathematics improved their average scores compared to European students, however, fail to compete with Asian students from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

"It has huge implications," Duncan said. "I think as a real economic imperative we have to educate our way to a better economy."