Even Mom Can't Read This Math Book

Awhile back someone asked me what the difference is between a Christian textbook and a secular textbook. "I mean how do you make Math Christian?"

Isn't the standard the same? Especially with Common Core, everyone should be learning the same thing, right?

People seem to recognize that Science would be different if provided by a Christian publisher since it would emphasize Creation and teach the Theory of Evolution, whereas a secular Science text would ignore or disregard Creation altogether and teach Evolution as fact. People generally seem to understand why we would purchase Christian Science materials and not be happy to use the same materials as the public school system.

But, with Math? Why does it matter if the publisher is Christian?

Well, the biggest difference that I've noticed is that Christian publishers tend to have problems such as this:
"The Matthews family gives a tithe of $200 every month to the church. They also give $50 to missionaries and $25 to help a young man go to a Christian college. What is the total amount of their gifts?"
(BJUP, Math 5)

Pretty straight forward question. It certainly includes a Christian bent, but it is also easy to read and understand.

This year we are using secular math materials with our older children (Grade 5 and up). I'm using Spectrum, which advertises right on the front of their workbooks "meets common core standards".

Last week, my fifth grader came to me with a math question he could not understand. Generally, this child is excellent at math, and works independently. So, when he didn't understand the question, I was concerned.

It started out like this, "Danielle, Tamequa, ..." He was stuck on this second word. It wasn't like any he'd ever seen before.
The sentence continued, "Danielle, Tamequa, Rashawn, and Joaquin are in Mrs. Thompson's fifth-grade class." By Joaquin, my boy was completely confused.

I tried to explain that these are children's names, even though we've never heard them before. Then, he asked me the question that knocked my argument out of the water.
"If these are names, how do you pronounce them?" Out of respect for the parents who choose these names, I didn't even try.

I understand being politically correct, and I understand wanting to include all sorts of people groups in the representation of story problems. What I don't understand how they expect the average fifth grader to read this.

Go ahead and use hard to pronounce and phonetically awkward but unique and interesting names in literature, but isn't the mixture of numbers, letters and symbols in Algebra confusing enough without giving the poor kid story problems he can't even read.