She got an assignment studying the history of Africa that included the following:

"the remains of the ape-like beings found here"....."were likely the ancestors of the black South Africans of today."

Are these people crazy!!!!! WTF!!!!!

sometimes, school is the worst place for education.

it should say they are the ancestors of us all! How poorly worded is that shit?

Horrible


Smooches;)

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Definitely poorly worded.

sammij said:

thats why we have to give them their foundations at home....

It's complete and utter bollocks anyway, apes are apes and humans are humans. Nevertheless how insulting is that sentence.

file a human rights complaint

You should educate the school how to word assignments far better

I often took papers back to the school / teacher and pointed out errors and sometimes mailed a copy to the school board.
Educators are not above education and well, how can they educate well when errors are overlooked ?

Mach said:

Typical

SCNDLS said:

Perhaps so

BUT

it does not have to be acceptable

I would contact the school board

Mach said:

I agree, but it figures that insensitivity continues. I'm not at all surprised.

SCNDLS said:

Yeah ~ I understand

Hi guys...sorry for the long delay (if anyone even reads this) I went out of town and had no access to the web.

I ended up in a series of emails with the teacher, and eventually the principal. They went the "we are all descendants of apes" route which pissed me off cuz I dont believe that shit. It was their way to reduce liability if I felt like filing a complaint somewhere. (note: the teacher referred to it as racist language in her email to me saying they intended to identify it as such.)

My 12 year old is graduating in a month, so I asked that the curriculum be altered for the future children and left it alone. Since they didn't call it what it was, the school can now kiss my booty for any alumni donations. They will get none from me. All of my money and unused timeshares will go to her nursery school.

I work in discrimination law, but I just didn't want to go there on that level. Its an isolated incident, and its a private independent school. If it was public my ass would have been sending the assignment to the local press.


Seriously...thank you all for your comments.

I am glad you brought this to the teacher's attention through email. It is stupid.

StillGotIt said:

That is horribly worded. Is this from a textbook?

coolcat said:

yep....the teachers told me it had a 2003 publication mark. My daughter saw the cover of the book (the pages were copied out of the book and the title was not at the foot of the pages.)

It's good you raised your concerns rather than just privately fuming about it. Gotta fix that shit.

What was in the elliptical portion of the sentence?

Is the text just pointing out that white South Africans weren't there at the time these remains were actually living? And therefore the ape-like remains of the white South Africans' ancestors would have to be found elsewhere?

If that's the case, I wouldn't be too upset about it myself. I understand it could have been worded a little more sensitively, though. I also would applaud the book and school for teaching evolution.

Just my two cents.

Efan said:

Exactly, why make something out of nothing. We ARE ALL evolved from apes, get over it.

GetAwayFromMe said:

just the words 'black South Africans' is touchy alone

GetAwayFromMe said:

Thank you Efan for acknowledging the wording isn't perfectly kosher. As for the individual who hung onto your coat tails with their post....

Get over it? (oh...wait....look who I'm talking to...a person who has made discriminatory comments on the org since I got here....Gemini13--is that you?) Well, you can believe what you want but that is not my belief. The book made mention of other races but only indicated blacks as having come from something apelike.

I am not making something out of nothing...do you know that white supremecist often like to teach that blacks are closer to monkeys on the evolution chain? This stuff was supposed to have been dealt with in curriculums because there were many books tinged with racism. Thats why an african american just might bitch slap you if you refer to their children as little monkeys. What do you think those "monkey" images of our president are all about? DUH!
[Edited 5/7/09 18:47pm]