a problem

[Helen]

Hi all
Wonder if you can give me some advice please? My head teacher has been aaked to remove a poster of the colour black - negro-Spanish as he finds the word offensive. She has taken it down but doesnt know what to say or do. She wants to know what the best way of dealing with the issue is. Has anyone had this problem- new to me- or can offer ways to approach it .
Any help appreciated as always.
Thanks Helen

[Jan Lewandowski]

I would suggest you also post this on the TES forum and the CILT Primary Languages forum. I would suspect that teachers in Secondary could well have come across this situation before and could maybe share insights and possible ways of resolving.

Would this by any chance be one of the free to download A4 posters from Schoolslinks featuring one colour per page? If so, this may make the word unduly prominent on its own. Perhaps display all the colours in a list together?

A tricky one and quite a difficult concept for the children but on the other hand you can't change the language.

An opportunity for Intercultural Understanding and maybe on some simple origins of words? Depends on the class and whether the request came from a parent or child?

Jan

 

[Helen]

                                                          Good idea about our secondary colleagues, Jan. Will do that now!

 These are the ones that we bought as they are lovely and colourful. They are in the playground and in the hall. I have been doing Spanish at the school, which is multicultural, for 3 years now. No child has ever said anything about the colour they just accept it- it was one of the parents who was sitting in an assembly!

Helen

[Lisa Stevens]

Don't think I can really add to all that's been said on the mail thread, but hope it's 'sorted' now!

Lisa xx

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

Like the others have already said - I do hope this is sorted out now.

 

Essentially the word is the Spanish word for  the colour 'black' - it is not being used as a noun and would be offensive to be used in such a way in Spanish as it is in English. It is pronounced neg-ro which should make that quite clear.

 

The word 'ka' means poo to a small child in French - yet the French seem able to sell the cars without any problem.

 

'Gay' in a poem is not deleted because it nowadays because the modern meaning is different.

 

I have checked with my colleagues in a school represented by many cultures and they assured me to remove the word would be racist as it would be anti-hispanic... perhaps use as a discussion with class - and definitely take a look at the book 'hombre de colors' - this traditional poem explains far better and more eloquently http://primarymfl.ning.com/profiles/blogs/hombre-de-color-ideas-amp