political correctness in our schools

[GTS_300_Coupe]

baa baa black white yellow brown sheep have you any wool fur skin.... yes sir madam master mistress yes sir madam master mistress 3,4,5,6,7 bags containers buckets pockets full.

I guess we cant offend nobody now if we include every minority group. :

[Work Horse]

I was treating this thread a bit light hearted. But it would seem that some people are genuinely very upset.

If you are genuinely very upset by things lablled "polictically correct", and believe the world is going to "Hell in a Handbasket" because of them, maybe looking at the information you are getting a little more critically might relieve those worries.

Lets take the Fairy Penguin story as an example. Here is one of many stories that "hit the wire". From the Melbourne Hearld Sun (the most widely read daily in Australia) 15th April 2006

http://heraldsun.news.com.au/common/...55E662,00.html

For me here's the give away quote;

"We didn't have any complaints about the name of the penguins, but someone thought it could be seen as offensive so we decided to change it to little penguin instead.

"The name is more politically correct. We're not treating it as a big issue."

So no one complained, but after the change was announced, and the story went around the world, heaps of people are complaining about something on one was complaining about.

Why would Sea World do such a thing? Have they bucklet under pressure from some unnamed unknown source? The Politically Correct Police maybe?

No it's just a story they knew the papers could not resist, and gets Sea World some free publicity.

The barrr barrr black sheep thing started the same sort of way, as some wacko idea from an individual in the UK. The papers could not resist. It has no basis in law, community standard or common sence.

Political correctness is up there with pyramid power. A lot has been said and written about it, but when you take the time to look a little deeper you discover there is nothing to it.

Fear not the world is not being over run by the politically correct police. You are having your chain pulled IMHO, and it will continue to happen until you realise you are the one pulling it.

Believe only half of what you see and nothing of what you are told :evil3:

[gozza]

Originally Posted by John McMaster

That is somewhat old and misquoted...I will not go into the whys and wherefores ...but solar power does not get a mention in the pc version of that.

As for the nursery rhymes ...long live baa baa BLACK sheep and catch a nigger by his toe if he squeals let him go.....and black golliwogs.

go the golliwogs mate

im only 20...they started phasing that out when i was like 10...maybe a few years before...there now called scallywags

[AshMan]

at work we are not allowed to call a blackout a blackout...

its a "power outage"

[ltd]

I heard they changed the song title from "Old Man River", to "Elderly gentleman River"

And the lyrics have been changed from "He don't know nothin', he must know sometin'" to "He doesn't know anything, however he must know something"

and
"You and me, we sweat and strain" to
"You and I, we perspire and exert ourselves"

No joke.

[gtfpv]

what are they going to do with the suburb of "MANLY" they'll have to change it to " PERSONLY"

[4.9 EF Futura]

Originally Posted by Work Horse

I was treating this thread a bit light hearted. But it would seem that some people are genuinely very upset.

If you are genuinely very upset by things lablled "polictically correct", and believe the world is going to "Hell in a Handbasket" because of them, maybe looking at the information you are getting a little more critically might relieve those worries.

Lets take the Fairy Penguin story as an example. Here is one of many stories that "hit the wire". From the Melbourne Hearld Sun (the most widely read daily in Australia) 15th April 2006

http://heraldsun.news.com.au/common/...55E662,00.html

For me here's the give away quote;

"We didn't have any complaints about the name of the penguins, but someone thought it could be seen as offensive so we decided to change it to little penguin instead.

"The name is more politically correct. We're not treating it as a big issue."

So no one complained, but after the change was announced, and the story went around the world, heaps of people are complaining about something on one was complaining about.

Why would Sea World do such a thing? Have they bucklet under pressure from some unnamed unknown source? The Politically Correct Police maybe?

No it's just a story they knew the papers could not resist, and gets Sea World some free publicity.

The barrr barrr black sheep thing started the same sort of way, as some wacko idea from an individual in the UK. The papers could not resist. It has no basis in law, community standard or common sence.

Political correctness is up there with pyramid power. A lot has been said and written about it, but when you take the time to look a little deeper you discover there is nothing to it.

Fear not the world is not being over run by the politically correct police. You are having your chain pulled IMHO, and it will continue to happen until you realise you are the one pulling it.

Believe only half of what you see and nothing of what you are told :evil3:

Great post mate. Thanks for the alternative perspective.

[FPV GT]

The world is up the creek without a paddle.
Minority groups... Yeah you are the minority, go about your thing / whatever all is okay.......the majority are not interested in what your doing.

We are Human, not huperson
Short Sightendness is not optically challenged (myopic is doc speak)
Tall / Short is a factual description, height challenged is no desciption.
Bankrupt is not fiscally challenged, you are broke, skint, bum out of pocket.
you are Lazy, not motivationally deficient
If you are Ugly, you are not cosmetically deficient.
Chrome dome baldies are not Follicularly challenged.

and when I reach the age of 75 I will be a Dirty Old Man !!!!!!
No way will I be refereed to as
A sexually focused chronologically gifted individual.


OH ! and why we are on the subject of P damn C....
I do not see the words MENopause and MENstral being changed, but I guess thats HIStory for ya : :

Regards
Paul

[Nappa]

this whole PC thing really started to annoy me when i went to the KFC in endeavour hills and couldnt my zinger with bacon and cheese, whats the world coming to.

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

Great post mate. Thanks for the alternative perspective.

Thanks mate.

I could not find the original "Fairy Penguin" article, but suspect it came out on April the 1st.

The barr barr black sheep story originated in a child care center in the UK. As I understand it the staff were swaping words in well know nursery rhymes to teach the kids new words ie barr barr rainbow sheep. The UK Daily Mail gets hold of it and the next day has it on the front page as polictical correctness gone mad in our schools.

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story!!

I suppose I should just get over it and laugh at how gullible a lot of people are. But I have to admit it saddens me to know people are so quick to believe crap put out by the daily newspapers and commercial current affairs programs. And to find fault in our "fellow man" were there is none IMHO.

Australia has the second highest rate of obesity in the world (is there nothing we are not good at!!), and we are pushing to be number one. As a nation we eat too much.
It's estimated sixteen thousand children die each week for lack of enough food too eat. Now it's not like every Australian could stop eating lunch and some how balance it out. It's a very complex situation. I personally feel there are some real problems in society, as opposed to problems invented or beaten up by the media. So we need to be careful which one we put our energys into.

Political correctness does not exist. If something looks like BS, and smells like BS, it probably is.

Believe only half of what you see and nothing of what you are told.

[Van D]

Originally Posted by Nappa

this whole PC thing really started to annoy me when i went to the KFC in endeavour hills and couldnt my zinger with bacon and cheese, whats the world coming to.

Why not?

[ssb2005]

what are they tring to do, this is ed

[thefargo]

is it true that the manhole in your house is now called "roof access cover"?

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by thefargo

is it true that the manhole in your house is now called "roof access cover"?

What do you imagine would happen if you insisted on calling your roof access cover a "manhole"?

But your point is well made thefargo, political correctness does exist.

But only in the imaginations of the people it bothers :

[XBCoupeGuy]

WorkHorse,

While you may wish to believe this is nothing more than an urban legend (or whatever) the comment I posted regarding school kids getting detention for calling an eraser a rubber is the 100% absolute truth.

Absolutely ridiculous.

[pertuan]

Originally Posted by Nappa

Originally Posted by Nappa
this whole PC thing really started to annoy me when i went to the KFC in endeavour hills and couldnt my zinger with bacon and cheese, whats the world coming to.

Originally Posted by popinfresh

Why not?

I believe a local group of residents made a complaint about pork being available on the menu and so they couldnt eat there because of it.

[pertuan]

Originally Posted by XBCoupeGuy

WorkHorse,

While you may wish to believe this is nothing more than an urban legend (or whatever) the comment I posted regarding school kids getting detention for calling an eraser a rubber is the 100% absolute truth.

Absolutely ridiculous.

If I were in high school now, I'd challenge them. I'd be calling it RUBBER every day. And when they gave me detention, I'd reply with "Uhhh... excuse me but what is it made from? Rubber? So I can call it rubber then. Unless you would rather I call it latex."

[Falcon Coupe]

Originally Posted by Work Horse

What do you imagine would happen if you insisted on calling your roof access cover a "manhole"?

But your point is well made thefargo, political correctness does exist.

But only in the imaginations of the people it bothers :

A Carpenter i used to work with referred to the manhole as the "person aperture" as a PC joke.

[Yellow Fire]

Originally Posted by XBCoupeGuy

WorkHorse,

While you may wish to believe this is nothing more than an urban legend (or whatever) the comment I posted regarding school kids getting detention for calling an eraser a rubber is the 100% absolute truth.

Absolutely ridiculous.

I'd say the context of the discussion had a lot to do with it. If kids are being punished for mentioning the word I agree with you. On the other hand if they're being punished because they think saying "RUBBER!" in class is the most hilarious thing in the world causing the class to be disrupted every 15mins I'd say they deserve the detention.

I remember from my school days that we'd use anything we could to annoy the teacher & get a laugh

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by XBCoupeGuy

WorkHorse,

While you may wish to believe this is nothing more than an urban legend (or whatever) the comment I posted regarding school kids getting detention for calling an eraser a rubber is the 100% absolute truth.

Absolutely ridiculous.

I have no doubt you are telling the truth XBCoupeGuy. But is it a blatant case of "political correctness gone mad in our schools". I believe Yellow Fire at least offers another perspective, but I so don't want to get into what is or is not PC.

My only purpose for posting in this thread was because so many people seemed genuinely very upset by stuff I find laughable. I was trying to offer some strategies I believed might help. I don't want to offend anyone.

The term "politically correct" is used so often and hijacked by people with various agendas it has become meaningless for me.

There is no doubting our language, the worlds we use, are powerful. So I understand people feel "political correctness" is taking that power away from the marjority and giving it to minority groups.

If we swapped the term "politically correct" for "community standard" may be that would take some of the emotion out of it. There is no hard and fast rules for community standards, they are evolving all the time.

People look back to "the good old days", before all this PC stuff. I believe it was about in the 1920's, but the good old days tend to be seen through rose coloured glasses. I went through school in the 1970's and it was all anyone was talking about then.

How you refered to people with disablities was a big one for a minority group hijacking the language of the majority. Now it's just seen as respect not to use words disabled people object to.

Stopping teachers striking students was seen as "political correctness gone mad in our schools", by many back in the 1970's. "It never hurt me", being the standard explaination. I can not imagine giving permission for anyone to strike my child under any circumstances.

The word "nigger" has been refered to twice in this thread. If anyone is unsure whether the community finds this acceptable any more let me give you the mail! Although I'm white so don't take my word for it. Next time the US Navy comes to a port near you, track down what pub they drink at and ask some of the darker members of the crew their opinion LOL.

[xr8chick]

Originally Posted by pertuan

If I were in high school now, I'd challenge them. I'd be calling it RUBBER every day. And when they gave me detention, I'd reply with "Uhhh... excuse me but what is it made from? Rubber? So I can call it rubber then. Unless you would rather I call it latex."

I do! i still havent got detention yet, im year 9 by the way. i dont care if i get detention cuz its a really stupid manner. and that true its made from rubber.

[MO]

Yes workhorse the word nigger has been referred to twice but in my case it was the nursery rhyme......I was born in 1948....so guess how I grew up...in the good old days..and yes in some ways thats where they should stay.

However teachers were allowed to be teachers and give you six of the best(cane)if you stuffed up...coppers were allowed to be coppers they had real discretion then..if they felt a number 10 up the bum was all that was needed you got it and NO ONE complained until about the early 80's.

Then the bloody do gooder brigade started to get noticed...much like Scruby now and now look at the bloody mess we're in..I.E. kids now have rights ,,leave home at 14 if you don't like the house/parent rules...Aboriginal(black) kids being told they have the same rights as white(european)kids.

Well guess what Abo' kids being told this has taken them into the twilight zone there has always been a hierachial system in Oz black culture the young one' s had to gain permission from the chain of command of the tribal elders before they did anything.

With the white culture it was a little similar...now both are told you have rights at 12/13 and don't let your elders tell you what to do or discipline you.


Now why do you think we have so many kids on the streets..doing drugs,chroming,sniffing glue,petrol etc.

I'll tell you why...the dogooders took away the rights of the elders in both societies to govern their family!!!!!!!!!!

As for tracking down the niggers of afro/american descent and calling them niggers been there done that....it all depends on the connotation....think about this as I said I was born in 1948 what war do you think I served through????

[MO]

Oh and by the way workhorse ....get your spelling correct...obivousley one of the kids who knows his rights....not.

You have the right to remain silent unless spoken to..you have the right to do as your elders tell you or suffer the consequences...you have the right to stay at home till you die so long as you obey the house/parental rules....you have the right to do as you see fit so long as it does'nt break any of societies/family laws/rules.......CAPICHE!

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by Work Horse

I so don't want to get into what is or is not PC.

I don't want to offend anyone.

Originally Posted by John McMaster

Oh and by the way workhorse ....get your spelling correct...obivousley

None of us are perfect John, but each is certainly intitled to an opinion _2:

[Fairlane]

PC blows, it gives way to many do-gooder power and resources despite the fact that they produce 0 (Think Scruby). Thank god i got through the school system when I did and missed alot of this PC stuff and the fact i went through the school system in QLD probably helped.

Some of this stuff is rediculous, ill give an example - The black boy blant (not PC correct)- Its now the Native Australian Grassland Plant. Jeez im part aboriginie, but i cant for the life of me see how anyone could be offended by that.

All this being said though- people shouldnt get sucked into the Today Tonight/A Current Affair style doom and gloom, downwards envy stuff and yes people always look backward at the 50s with a sense of nostalgia, but people have to understand that living back then wasnt fun it you were aborigine, asian, pacific islander, maori, disabled, mentally ill, indian (the list is endless)

[MO]

Originally Posted by Work Horse

None of us are perfect John, but each is certainly intitled to an opinion _2:

And I'll the first one to stand up for your right to express it.

Dead right about none of us being perfect......especially me.