Levittown has no desire to be equated with a shantytown, even in the name of education.
The suburb, America’s first, is upset with New York state over a question on a social studies test that lists Levittown as a possible answer to the question asking students to identify a picture of a Great Depression shantytown.
Hooverville was the correct answer.
From the Associated Press story:
The question, on the state’s eighth-grade social studies test, shows a photo of shacks labeled “A Shantytown during the Depression.” Students were asked whether such areas were known as tenements, ghettos, Levittowns or Hoovervilles. (The correct answer is Hoovervilles.)
In a letter to the state, the Levittown schools superintendent calls the reference “derogatory, totally unnecessary and inaccurate.”
A state education spokesman says the department regrets any misunderstanding. Says Tom Dunn: “We meant no disrespect for Levittown or those who live there.”
The test was administered two weeks ago to 200,000 students statewide.
Oh gimme a break already. People are too sensitive. Obviously the correct answer should have been Mastic.
What a terrible waste of the taxpayers’ time. That superintendant should be spending his time innovating ways to keep budget costs from rising too fast and/or negotiating hard with the teachers’ union to keep salary / benefit costs reasonable, instead of wasting the taxpayers’ time by writing and sending that childish letter!
[...] Hooverville in Levittown, New York (Source) [...]
[...] Hooverville in Levittown, New York (Source) [...]
[...] Hooverville in Levittown, New York (Source) [...]