Topic: Black sheep banned at nursery

[laama]

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/education/s/207/207086_black_sheep_banned_at_nursery.html


A NURSERY is teaching children to sing Baa Baa "rainbow" sheep rather than Baa baa black sheep - to avoid causing offence.

The new words to the traditional ditty, which generations of children have sung, have been altered by bosses at the Family Centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and the Sure Start centre in nearby Sutton Courtenay.

Stuart Chamberlain, the Sure Start centre's manager, told the Oxford Star weekly paper: "We have taken the equal opportunities approach to everything we do.

"This is fairly standard across nurseries. We are following stringent equal opportunities rules. No one should feel pointed out because of their race, gender or anything else."

But the charity Parents and Children Together, which runs the two centres, as well as two others in Didcot and Berinsfield, insisted the changes - which they have made in all of their family centres - were not down to race issues.

Energy

In a statement released today, PACT said: "PACT has established that children at the two family centres sing a variety of descriptive words in the nursery rhyme to turn the song into an action rhyme.

"They sing happy, sad, bouncing, hopping, pink, blue, black & white sheep etc and they also exchange boy and girl at the end of the rhyme. This encourages the children to extend their vocabulary and use up some energy.

"PACT is an organisation that values diversity and above all encourages children to enjoy themselves and have fun."

A straw poll of other local nurseries revealed that the alterations are not standard.

Jill Edge, of The Sunshine Centre in Banbury, north Oxfordshire, said the move smacked of "tokenism".

She said: "We sing Baa Baa Black Sheep and Baa Baa White Sheep because that's reality, that's what the children see in the fields and it encourages them to look around them.

Issues

"Realistically, they are not going to see rainbow sheep in the fields. There are much better ways of addressing these issues."

The earliest known printing of the words to Baa baa blacks sheep was 1744.

The educational rhyme, with its onomatopoeic bleating, is intended to teach children about the wool trade and the animals that produce it. At the time England produced some of the finest wool in Europe.

In 2000, proposals to ban the rhyme in Birmingham nurseries on the grounds it was negative and could cause offence were rejected by the city council.

WTF they are thinking?

[Diabolico]

They are not thinking, that's the problem. At such an age, too much is getting put into this, more should be put into general attitude and environment. Its more what could cause offence, rather than it causing offence.

Thou "rainbow" sheep, if I was to look at with PC glasses, is more offensive, it makes me think coloured.

[Skadi]

^ those are the 2 things I thought first.. well.. after I thought.. 'geez.. how stupid!' Then I wondered if the rainbow was the symbol for gay other places besides the US. And how jacked it is to have to squeeze rainbow into the measured beat that black fit into

heh.. whatever pc goes too far sometimes

[dweez]

There is such a thing as too PC.

[frankcapri]

Is black considered a racial slur now?  The kids in my wife's class occasionally will look
shocked at her when she she says someone is black (in a book or story they're reading.)

African American only goes so far.  If a black guy from Havana moves to the US, he's probably
going to call himself Cuban and not African American.  Further, calling a black woman who is English
African American is ridiculous. 

[Skadi]

^ yup.. I don't get the continual shifting of proper terms. By trying not to be insulting.. sometimes it comes off as insulting.

There is such a thing as too PC.

is that a mac vs. pc joke

[dweez]

Hehe, it could be.

[Skadi]

^ 

There is such a thing as too PC.

And, I agree.. it's definitely always good to be sensitive to other people. The trouble comes when akward moments crop up.. and walls get built up because people are afraid anything they say will be the wrong thing. It's hard to find balance sometimes in life.

[goldshirt*9]

thanks for that post.
never knew that .
apparently a lot of nursery rhymes relate to something in history.

you can go tooooooooooooooooooooo far to be PC.

i wonder if it was a white person who thought about it.
did anyone ask the black community if it offended them or should we just censor our entire literary history to omit the word black.
where my friend works at school its all   Heritage this , Heritage that now .


Bloody PC tossers

[Robin-Graves]

Nice sig,, vid is from Hot Fuzz,, good comedy.

Anyway,,, as for the pc thing.
I once asked a school admin about why they are so politicaly correct,, he said it was to cut down on people being offended.
I told him " cowpoo!!! Im offended that these lamos are offended by non pc language".
He looked at me funny and walked away.

I guess its going to go to the extent of manhole covers are going to be person hole covers, man and wife will be person and partner , and the man on the moon will be the person on the moon.
You can see it all on Late Night with David Letterperson.

I saw a film on early pc,,,it was in black and white and hard to understand at the time, since it was all  in German.

[Diabolico]

Thanks for posting that, Aelthric .

This is probably full of conjecture and fail. If I can explain it >_>; people that see something as offensive A) the so-called offensive word or phrase isn't about them or their backgrounds, B) sometimes a meaning gets twisted from its original meaning, C) with all the good intentions, it just makes things worse. It makes it an "morass".

All the above with a large side of contradiction. I used to see Equal Opportunities and Equality of Opportunity as a contradiction.

One example being from the both of them, treat people equally, but at the same time give opportunity to progress by individual help. Am I putting too much into it?

Is black considered a racial slur now?

I hope not. It depends on the context and not the word. Example sphincter can be offensive, its how the word is used and the context.

[Robin-Graves]

Exactly.
Like in Australia,,calling someone a scallywag ( this is me mate Jonas,hes a scallywag) is a term of endearment,here in the states its likely to get you shot.

I personaly dont condone the whole pc thing. I concider it a violation of free speach.
But,,thats modern America for you.

Another thing, did you know its not pc to dislike our current president since if you dont like him,, your evidently "racist".

[mishca09]

i dont think calling someone a scallywag would get you shot in america now. girls are calling their friends bitches, whores and sluts and they mean it in a good way.

[JackFrost]

Is black considered a racial slur now? 

Y'know I've noticed this, too...

Some people seem to think it's racist when you simply acknowledge someone's ethnicity.

The director of my concert venue, used to shush and scold me whenever I'd call Persians, well.. Persians. She was under the impression I was slurring them by employing what the promoter of the show called himself and the patrons who would attend. Some people are knee-jerk quick to call others racist it seems.

So just to end it, I brought the guy into her office and asked him if he could please tell her that not only was he Persian but that the designation was not offensive.

She wasn't amused that I essentially forced her to disavow herself of a previous held notion, however she has been less irritatingly PC when it comes to recognizing a group's heritage.

[indie180]

I am not racist in any way. I have always told my children no matter the colour of a persons skin, their blood is red and if you cut them open, they are the same colour on the inside as them

Some people seem to think it's racist when you simply acknowledge someone's ethnicity.

I live in a wee village up in the hills in Scotland. I have only even spoken to 3 Black/Coloured/Ethnic people in my life. One was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in America, one was a friend of a mate's in London and one was an ex-soldier from Ghana (who I worked with for a short time, I did like our conversions).

Some people from other Nations take offense at shortening the name of their Country into a name that people call them and call it racist.

Scotland>Scottish>Scot, I take no offense as I take none in being called 'A Jock or A Sweaty' (Sweaty Sock = Jock)

Are we such a laid back, tolerant nation.

I live in what was a coal mining community and have been calling one and other 'Black Bastards' for as long as I can remember. It has nothing to do with the colour of skin pigment, but a reference to Personal Hygiene