Friday, February 20, 2009

N.B. education minister orders end to race-based Grade 4 assignment




Source: CBC

New Brunswick's education minister has ordered the cancellation of a school assignment that asked children which lives they would save if they had to choose among different ethnic groups.

Kelly Lamrock's move came after outrage was expressed by a mother at the school.

"I can't mince words," Lamrock said. "It is unacceptable in every way. Whatever the intent was, it invites and encourages defining people by stereotypes. It needs to stop."

The education minister said the objective of promoting cultural diversity is a part of the curriculum, but that specific class project is not.

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 which person they would save among the following: an Acadian francophone, a Chinese person, a black African, an English person and an aboriginal person.


Looks like this student chose the Acadian, American and African. The Chinese guy is toast. At least the decision was a difficult one!

3 comments:

Anh Khoi Do said...

Damn, whoever thought about such a ridiculous assignment exposed his/herself to public ridicule. It's like saying that belonging to some ethnic groups is better than others.

Degenerasian said...

Some teachers think they're smarter and creative than others. I can understand trying to make a dull assignment more interesting but I'm not even sure what this particular assignment was trying to teach!

Roger Williams said...

The point is that public education has gone from offering actual education to offering heavy handed moral lessons. Can you blame them if, after a while, they forget what they even were trying to say in the first place?