To see nothing wrong in the traditional nursery rhyme "Baa Baa blck sheep"

[Reallytired]

According to my daugher's nursery the nursery rhyme "Baa Baa black sheep" is racist. They have to sing "Baa Baa multi-coloured rainbow sheep".

Why is the traditional version considered offensive? It seems to me PC gone mad.

Baa Baa Black Sheep
have you any wool,
yes sir yes sir
3 bags full

Baa Baa Multi coloured rainbow sheep
have you any wool..

nah it dont fit.

My 3yr old is singing baa baa black sheep as it was on teletubbies the other week.

Baa baa Rainbow Sheep
Did you spike my tea?
Did you give me Ecstasy
or was it LSD?

You've gone all multi-coloured
before you were just black.
Now I see an egg upon a wall
It must have been crack!

Thing that got me Britfish is that the whole "can't use brainstorm" got days and days of news coverage but the retort from the epilepsy society (group, whatever it was) got all of 2 news reports that I heard and they were furious. Their big thing was that they found finding the term brainstorm offensive to be offensive but that the term "fits" was the worst of all... yet no one listened to them about what they actually found to be offensive and in many places it is OK to say having a fit rather than seizure yet not OK to say having a brainstorm...

wool from a rainbow sheep would look vile once its carded and spun. Wool from a black sheep would look lovely

I always leave it to the kids to suggest songs when I'm out on supply, just in case I step on someone's sensibiiities and don't think I've come across a nursery or reception class yet that haven't sang black sheep (and I'll add I teach in a very multi-culutural area). Some do the second verse of thank yous, some don't - and there's one school which have an additional version of "Moo moo blue cow have you any milk" or something like that - but no multi-coloured rainbow sheep.

Have also shockingly seen toilet roll tubes being used for junk modelling as well - that urban myth that they'd all been banned seems to be dying out now.

I also didn't see anything wrong with blackboard as a word (apparently we're meant to call them chalkboards now - well they were black, and a board we wrote on) yet whiteboard was completely acceptable!

I just cant imagine aload of nursery age children being able to actually get the words "baa baa multi-coloured rainbow sheep" out tbh. It would most likely sound like "Baa baa mumble mumble SHEEP"

I don't agree that it's a good thing, I think it causes more division, mistrust and racism. Just look at the facebook group someone posted (don't like our flag but you like our benefits). Everytime a story about this PC anti-racism stuff comes out regarding Muslims (Three Little Puppies for example) the main mosque releases a statement saying that they're offended by these measures, not what they're supposed to be changing because they don't have a problem anyway and it breeds racism.

the multi-coloured sheep thing has got to be a joke, surely...

Songbiird, good point there.

In Japan black and white people are grouped into the same category- they can't get over our big, boggly eyes

pmsl sakura

When I started a B.Ed Primary in 1986, it was 'Baa, Baa, Green Sheep' that we were told to use. All well and good, but the kids I taught were farmers children who knew that the sheep weren't green!

they so are

I sing "Baa baa purple sheep, have you any sausages" purely because it causes my DTDs (3.10) to squeal "NOOOOOOOO Mummy, that's WROOOOOOOOONG"

I have worked in a nursery where the deputy manager told me that I couldn't teach the children "baa baa black sheep". However, she couldn't tell me why I couldn't teach it. Her reasoning was "that's just what I've been told". I told her that until she could give me a reason why, I would continue to sing the proper version.

Mind you, this is also the nursery where 2 nursery workers came back from a training course and said that if male nursery workers had a child sitting on their knee, the male nursery worker had to put a cushion on their lap first.

I sing Baa Baa Black sheep but end it with one for the master, one for the dame and one for the boys and girls who live down the lane. So it may be racist(haha) but it gender equal.

Just out od curiosity does anyone know anyone with jacob sheep they might want to sell ?

beenbeta what the heck is drench in relation to sheep ? oh and how often do they need dipping and shearing ?
Sorry folks for shameless hijack

Drench is a medicine that is poured into the sheep's mouth. Sheep need shearing at least once a year although some farms shear twice so the sheep is not using it's energy to grow wool but it's lamb. Protein thing.

Sheep tend not to be dipped so much nowadays as there were problems with the organophoshates in the dips plus environmental problems with the disposal of the dip. A liquid is poured onto the sheep's back instead.

It is not considered offensive.

I don't have a problem with blackboard/chalkboard. Both are perfectly reasonable descriptions of the object.