D'z Nutz
02-18-2009, 04:04 PM
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/02/18/nb-homework-project.html?ref=rss
A southeastern New Brunswick mother is outraged after her 10-year-old daughter was given a government-approved school assignment she feels is better suited for "concentration camp employees."
Jessie Lomax's daughter, Feven, whom she adopted from Ethiopia a year and a half ago, came home recently upset by the social studies project.
The assignment for the Grade 4 students at École Mont-Carmel in Ste-Marie-de-Kent was based on the notion that the planet was about to explode.
The students had three spaces in a rocket ship and they had to decide whom to save among an Acadian francophone, a Chinese person, a black African, an English person and an aboriginal person. The assignment also included images representing each of the different ethnic groups that they could choose to save.
Lomax said her daughter felt troubled by this assignment.
"She definitely found it was upsetting. She felt it was wrong, she didn't understand it," she said.
"It's also terrifying for her. She's the only child of any other racial or ethnic group in that class. To then be walked through this exercise with limited understanding, to her it's terrifying.
"It's as though she is set in an environment where this is a possibility in Canada."
Unhappy with school's response
Feven has a sister named Halina who is in Grade 3 at the same school.
Lomax's mother, Laura Maillet, has a four-year-old daughter who was also adopted from Ethiopia.
Lomax and Maillet complained to the school principal and the teacher. But they said the school's response was unacceptable.
"They seem to refuse to acknowledge it is inappropriate to suggest that it's the right way to handle racism or any of those issues in a class environment," she said.
"To me it looks like training for concentration camp employees. It's disgusting. And we're going to go further with it, obviously."
Assignment part of provincial curriculum
Bernice Ryan, the school's principal, said she has listened to Lomax's concerns, but feels the exercise is a good one, as it is intended to show the students how to be respectful to all groups.
"Children would say, 'Well, we don't want to make any decision so we kept everyone here on the planet.' Or some of the students would say, 'Well, we've chosen to keep the three main ethnical groups in our community, which is English, French and Amerindian, because of being able to communicate,'" she said.
Ryan said the exercise was prepared by the Department of Education and is part of the curriculum. The principal said she doesn't believe the exercise is out of date, but she has passed concerns on to the district office.
Lomax has complained to the department but hasn't had any response so far.
Maillet said the school assignment is asking kids to make a life-or-death decision based only on language and ethnicity.
"Then the exercise goes on with ludicrous questions like, 'Was it a difficult decision and how do you think the other people would feel?'" she said.
Haha, shit if I was given an assignment like this now, I'd get in so much trouble for all the derogatory comments I'd come up with:
I would choose the Chinese person, because his or her superior math skills would come in handy when calculating the correct trajectory to avoid any potential asteroid fields. Also, he or she could make a knock off of the original rocket ship, though it would be of lesser quality and fall apart in the water.
A southeastern New Brunswick mother is outraged after her 10-year-old daughter was given a government-approved school assignment she feels is better suited for "concentration camp employees."
Jessie Lomax's daughter, Feven, whom she adopted from Ethiopia a year and a half ago, came home recently upset by the social studies project.
The assignment for the Grade 4 students at École Mont-Carmel in Ste-Marie-de-Kent was based on the notion that the planet was about to explode.
The students had three spaces in a rocket ship and they had to decide whom to save among an Acadian francophone, a Chinese person, a black African, an English person and an aboriginal person. The assignment also included images representing each of the different ethnic groups that they could choose to save.
Lomax said her daughter felt troubled by this assignment.
"She definitely found it was upsetting. She felt it was wrong, she didn't understand it," she said.
"It's also terrifying for her. She's the only child of any other racial or ethnic group in that class. To then be walked through this exercise with limited understanding, to her it's terrifying.
"It's as though she is set in an environment where this is a possibility in Canada."
Unhappy with school's response
Feven has a sister named Halina who is in Grade 3 at the same school.
Lomax's mother, Laura Maillet, has a four-year-old daughter who was also adopted from Ethiopia.
Lomax and Maillet complained to the school principal and the teacher. But they said the school's response was unacceptable.
"They seem to refuse to acknowledge it is inappropriate to suggest that it's the right way to handle racism or any of those issues in a class environment," she said.
"To me it looks like training for concentration camp employees. It's disgusting. And we're going to go further with it, obviously."
Assignment part of provincial curriculum
Bernice Ryan, the school's principal, said she has listened to Lomax's concerns, but feels the exercise is a good one, as it is intended to show the students how to be respectful to all groups.
"Children would say, 'Well, we don't want to make any decision so we kept everyone here on the planet.' Or some of the students would say, 'Well, we've chosen to keep the three main ethnical groups in our community, which is English, French and Amerindian, because of being able to communicate,'" she said.
Ryan said the exercise was prepared by the Department of Education and is part of the curriculum. The principal said she doesn't believe the exercise is out of date, but she has passed concerns on to the district office.
Lomax has complained to the department but hasn't had any response so far.
Maillet said the school assignment is asking kids to make a life-or-death decision based only on language and ethnicity.
"Then the exercise goes on with ludicrous questions like, 'Was it a difficult decision and how do you think the other people would feel?'" she said.
Haha, shit if I was given an assignment like this now, I'd get in so much trouble for all the derogatory comments I'd come up with:
I would choose the Chinese person, because his or her superior math skills would come in handy when calculating the correct trajectory to avoid any potential asteroid fields. Also, he or she could make a knock off of the original rocket ship, though it would be of lesser quality and fall apart in the water.