What is a boy toy? Middle school students get bizarre quiz

A bizarre quiz given to sixth-grade students in Hopewell, Virginia asked students about ‘boy toys,’ trophy wives and illicit affairs as part of a lesson about family relationships, reported WTVR. Now the school has issued an apology after parents complained.

The 20-question assignment given in a family and consumer sciences class is mostly innocent. Students were asked things like “What do you call the son of your uncle?” or “What do you call the son of your husband’s first marriage?”

It’s the final four questions that gave parents pause:

Question: What do you call it when a married person has a relationship with someone else?

Answer: An affair

Question: What do you call a married man’s girlfriend?

Answer: Mistress

Question: What do you call the much younger boyfriend of an older woman?

Answer: Boy Toy

Question: What do you call the much younger and beautiful wife of an older, wealthy man?

Answer: Trophy wife

“It was highly inappropriate for a teacher to bring this up in a family class, which was family and consumer science because it had nothing to do with the family unit that is outside the family unit,” Tara Sample, a parent of one of the students, told WRIC.

The worksheet, apparently downloaded off a website for exchanging materials for teaching English as a second language, prompted calls of concern from Sample and other parents who did not think the assignment was appropriate for middle school children, reported NBC 12.

Most of the comments about the worksheet on the website are positive, though one person called it “rubbish” and said “why in the world would I want to teach my students about cheating and lovers and boy toys?” The creator responded and said the worksheet “may not be appropriate to teach to younger students.”

Hopewell City Public Schools Superintendent Melody Hackney issued a statement Monday saying officials began investigating after the issue was brought to their attention, after which they relied the worksheet “was not a part of the current and approved curriculum for this course nor was it in any way an appropriate learning tool for middle school aged children.”

Hackney wrote that safeguards have been put in place to prevent something like this from happening again, and added that she could not comment on the instructor because it was a personnel issue.

This story was originally published November 14, 2017 at 11:08 AM with the headline "What is a boy toy? Middle school students get bizarre quiz."