Thursday 9 October 2008

The World Gone Mad

This afternoon I discovered my class being taught Baa Baa Black Grey Sheep. You know, that well-loved traditional nursery rhyme? Yea, I was taught it differently too.
I thought it was just rumours being spread about there being a ban on singing Black Sheep, but sadly not.

Baa baa grey sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
One for the kitten and one for the cat,
and one for the guinea pig to knit a woolley hat...


SERIOUSLY?? Has anyone ever seen a grey sheep, anyway?

I meant to ask the teacher at the end of the lesson why the hell she was teaching that version, but I forgot to mention it.

10 comments:

Alasdair said...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/fun/baabaablacksheep.shtml

If Auntie Beeb, that bastion of 'political correctness' gone mad, can sing Baa Baa BLACK Sheep, I suspect there isn't actually any kind of national policy in place on this.

In fact, I suspect it's your teacher whose been cowed into fear of being 'un-PC', not by us in the PC brigade, but rather by scaremongering in rags like the Express and the Mail...

rosiewishes. said...

I know there's no national policy... They'd have a job getting that nailed.
Hence why I wanted to ask her why she'd made the decision to teach such a stupid version!

Anonymous said...

I heard it had been changed to "baa baa wooly sheep" which is even worse..."baa baa wooly sheep, have you any wool?" Well obviously it does!

rosiewishes. said...

I think it's just changed to whatever PC thing the teacher can come up with, lol!

Anonymous said...

I've heard Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep, grey sheep must be positively abundant compared to rainbow sheep.

Just use your powerful zoology knowledge to inform them properly!

Anonymous said...

At the nursery we sang black, white, rainbow and pink sheep. They all have different verses:

"baa baa pink sheep have you any spots, yes sir yes sir lots and lots, some on my fingers, some on my toes, some on the end of my little pink nose"

"baa baa white sheep looking over there, seeing all the nanny goats going to the fair, with white socks and black shoes and long curly hair, look at all the nanny goats going to the fair"

(I can't remember the rainbow sheep one, it was something to do with learning all the colours - baa baa rainbow sheep, looking rather bright, red wool, green wool, purple, blue and white" or something.)

I heard it was to make it a bit more fun, add some action rhymes, 'enhance the educational element and vocabulary' and stuff, it's like you can sing "twinkle twinkle chocolate bar" or "twinkle twinkle traffic lights".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4782856.stm

Trainee teacher said...

Does it really matter? There are far more important issues surrounding race issues in the classroom than one teacher who decides to be ultra PC over such a silly little thing.

Anonymous said...

I grew in South London and heard that they was doing this before I moved abroad a couple of years ago.

I used to work for Local Governement as well, and just before I left we weren’t allowed to use the ‘Brain Storming’ anymore we had to say ‘thought shower’

Strange, strange world.

rosiewishes. said...

I like the idea of there being extra verses to the rhyme, like in Liz's nursery. I just don't like the idea that it's done because saying 'black sheep' is, in some way, racist.
(And I hate 'Twinkle Twinkle Chocolate Bar'! The lyrics really annoy me...)

Yes, there are other, more important, race issues in the classroom, but it just happened that Grey Sheep made an appearance in my day.

Apparently 'brain storming' is offensive to epileptics. I've still heard it used in classrooms though.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of epileptics, I was telling my boyfriend a story on the bus one day. My housemate made an unfortunate remark about bright lights and epilepsy in front of another friend who suffers with it. The woman sitting in front of us on the bus turned round and had a go at me for calling her an epileptic, telling me that I must say "person living with epilepsy". ffs. I found that offensive and think people who think it is acceptable to eavesdrop on the bus AND THEN tell me off for calling someone by a medically appropriate term should be shot. Or worse, some hideously offensive name for them thought up.

Sorry :)