Metro - Date ??
“A school in Wales has banned children from making Mother's Day cards. Helen Starkey, head teacher at Johnstown Primary School, in Carmarthen, West Wales, took the decision to avoid upsetting children without a mother. She explained 'More than 5% of children here are separated from their birth mother and have either no contact or no regular contact with their mother. These include children who are bereaved, children whose parents are separated and are not domiciled with their mothers, and children who have been removed from parental care by statutory bodies. In all of our dealings with these children, we have to exercise great sensitivity.'
And if you're not British?
Mothers' Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday in May in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech. Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Slovak, Republic, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad, Turkey, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
It's not tied into the church calendar as it is in the UK.
How did it start?
Traditionally, 16th century servants were given time off to return home and visit their mother, often taking a small gift or posy of flowers. Better-off servants would bring a special mothering cake. At the time, most young people in service lived away from their families and welcomed the rare opportunities to spend time with them.
Earlier still, the Ancient Greeks held spring celebrations in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. Rites in honour of Cybele, the mother of Classical Roman gods, lasted for 3 days.”
ESTHER’S COMMENTS
I know this is old news, but I was quite ticked off to read such nonsense. In terms of being politically correct, this Headteacher has lost the plot. Maybe she should consider leaving her job to cultivate peanuts on Mount Everest or some other job that requires very little thought processes and intelligence.
It seems that in the 21st century, we are becoming a body and a new class of Qualified Idiots. Being Politically Correct or “not” seems to be the order of the day, where in essence the focus of what really matters is pushed under the carpet.
There is a real crisis in terms of the education system in this country and how children and young people are seriously under-achieving, and leaving school without being able to read or write and a plethora of other problems. Therefore, one would think that this Headteacher would have better things to expend precious energy and time on than this?
The fact remains here is that Mother’s Day is a long-standing tradition. The fact here is that there will always be children who for one reason or the other are not with their mother. There is something called creativity. There is something called common sense and if this teacher was not so caught up within the veil of her own warped ideologies, she would not have made this such an issue.
If she was really “bovvered” about anything at all, maybe she should look at making school meals more appetising!!!!!!
My opinion is that rather than totally scrapping the making of Mother’s Day Cards, why not be a little creative, use a little common sense and get the children to make cards for “Special Women/Ladies” in their lives who hold the significance of a maternal role to them.
But I guess I am no position, being a mother, to think of such obvious, basic, positive alternatives such as the aforementioned and therefore, would you say that thinking outside the box is not PC enough, in order to make real judgements and decisions about something as simplistic and basic as the above solution?
