Cultural Sensitivity, Please!

Filed in archive Food for Thought , News on April 29, 2006

A seven-year-old sits isolated during his lunch period for his "disgusting" eating behaviour. Eating like a pig, you mean? Yes, according to the principal of his 387-student Roxboro school. Any parent would probably thank the principal for disciplining the child but then the lunch monitor's and principal's definition of "eating like a pig" is using his spoon and fork together.

What on earth? A clash of cultures?

Luc Cagedoc, child of an immigrant from the Philippines, was punished for eating the way his family eats. His principal told his mother: "Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat." Later, he told a reporter that Luc's way of eating "is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time."



Huh? Is this for real? I am shocked and for the sake of my sanity hope that Monsieur Principal has been quoted out of context. Otherwise, I'd like to know where has he been? Has he been hiding under a rock?

Stef was shocked as well and asks, "In what century are we living?" Like her, I am all for teaching immigrant children the ways of their adoptive culture but they shouldn't be made to forget, much less, be punished for their heritage.

What a mess! In an effort to make Luc "eat the way Canadians eat" not only did the principal insult Filipinos but most Southeast Asians as well. In this day and age and in what is supposedly a pluralistic society, I wonder if it is thinly veiled racism or sheer naivete.

Picture and details from The Chronicle's Filipino table etiquette punished at local school

Update: Filipino mom to ask for public apology