Pimp' and 'Mobstaz'?: Parent Aghast at 4th-Grade Worksheet That Appears Connected to Common Core

It's the kind of children's question most parents don't look forward to answering.

But when Brittney Badeaux's nine-year-old son came home from school the other day asking what a "pimp" is, imagine her surprise that her fourth-grader was introduced to the term — and other eye-opening ones — through a worksheet from his elementary school.

(Credit: KPEL-FM)

The assignment from Eaton Park Elementary in Abbeville, La., focuses on how related words are used in a real-world context; one of the five entries details the term "Twista":

Carl Terrell Mitchell, better known by his stage name Twista, was born in 1972. Nineteen years later Mitchell's first album, "Runnin' Off at da Mouth," debuted. In 1997, after appearing on Do or Die's hit "Po Pimp," Twista was signed to Atlantic Records. Under that label he released "Adrenaline Rush" and formed the group Speedknot Mobstaz in 1998. His 2004 album Kamikaze went to number-one in the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart.

“My son doesn’t know what pimps and mobstaz are!” Badeaux writes in an email to KPEL-FM. “I try to teach my son respect and morals."

Brittney Badeaux (Credit: KLFY)

"If they had to use that type of genre, I feel like they could even have used a more positive artist, not something that's so degrading and so disrespectful," she tells KLFY-TV.

Vermilion Parish School Superintendent Jerome Puyau says the supplemental material was pulled from a national database. He also seemed to insinuate the worksheet was an attempt to simply conform to Common Core standards.

"We did not write this," Puyau tells KLFY. "We are aligning to the Common Core state standards. We want to ensure that what we provide is appropriate. We are constantly looking, analyzing, and editing, and we will listen and make changes as needed."

“Are these students going to see this on the shelves in our department stores?” he asks KPEL. “And the answer is yes. If you search it, the first thing that comes up is the actual song [“Po Pimp”]. This is real-world.”

Payau adds to KPEL that the reference to "Kamikaze” in the "Twista" entry can be related to the Japanese World War II suicide pilots, a subject that is taught in history classes.

Jerome Puyau (Credit: KLFY)

Badeaux previously raised concerns about a similar class exercise that included a detailed description of how a machine gun works, KPEL notes.

Here's a report from KLFY:

Acadiana's Multi-Media News Station

(H/T: KPEL-FM; KLFY-TV)

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