Susie's Steps

By SHELLEY EMLING
semling@coxnews.com
Published on: 03/22/06
LONDON — Has anyone ever actually seen a rainbow-colored sheep?
Teachers at nursery schools in Oxfordshire have asked children to change the words of "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" to "Baa, Baa, Rainbow Sheep" to avoid the possibility of offending anyone.





"This type of thing is definitely happening in all parts of the country," said Laura Midgley, co-founder of Britain's Campaign Against Political Correctness. "This makes an issue about the color black when there should not be one.

"It's just a color at the end of the day," she said.

As in the United States, the removal of alienating or potentially offensive words is part of a political correctness drive that has gained momentum in recent years across British society.

Many argue that the power of words is underestimated and are pleased that more people seem to be showing sensitivity toward ethnicity and sexuality.

But others wonder whether the desire not to offend anyone has gone too far.

This isn't the first time nursery rhymes have fallen victim here to the P.C. campaign. In 2003, the Mothercare store chain here began selling cassette tapes and CDs featuring a new version of Humpty Dumpty in which there was a happy ending.

The new version said that "Humpty Dumpty opened his eyes, falling down was such a surprise, Humpty Dumpty counted to 10, then Humpty Dumpty got up again."

"The political correctness campaign has been going on for some time, but we are seeing more of it these days than we have in the past," Midgley said.

She and others say this latest desire to not offend by getting rid of "black sheep" is ludicrous.

The nursery rhyme dates back to the mid-1700s and is related to a tax imposed on wool by the king that divided receipts equally among the local lord (the master), the church (the dame), and the farmer (the little boy). Black wool was apparently taxed at a lower rate than white wool.

The charity group that runs the nurseries in Oxfordshire, Parents and Children Together, said the changes to the nursery rhyme have nothing to do with race.

In a statement, the group said it has established that the children at the nurseries would now sing a variety of descriptive words so that the rhyme becomes an active one.

The children will be asked to sing "sad," "blue," "pink," "black," "white," "happy," "hopping," and "bouncing" when describing the sheep in order to encourage the children to extend their vocabulary and use up some energy.