"Ethnic Form for Parents"

Juniorina's 5th grade class is doing a genealogy assignment, part of which is to fill out an "Ethnic Form for Parents."  There are probably 100 ethnic groups on the form--lots of specific European and Asian groups and countries, but if your family hails from the Dark Continent, your choices are "Africans," the very 1970s "Afro American," or "South Africans."  And it's a bummer that in a school with a significant number of Hispanic/Latino kids, the options are "Mexican" and "Central and South Americans."   Predictably, indigenous folks get to choose from "American Indians,"  "Aleuts," or "Eskimos."  But, Zoroastrians, Wends, Tatars, Manx, Gypsies, and Kalmyks (?!?!?), to name a few, get their own category.  Inexplicably, Amish, Jewish  and Bosnian Muslims are on the list.  The funniest:  Canadians. 

There's also a fake birth certificate that Juniorina had to fill out, which requires listing biological parents.  At the bottom of the page there's a note that says, "If data about biological parents is unknown, in pencil write Unknown at this time on the lines."  Sorry, adoptees--you are SOL.  My kids have done several of these assignments over the years, and I have such mixed feelings about them.  I love the opportunity to share information about my birth mother's family history, but have a birth father who is MIA.  And, my girls' father knows nothing about his family history. 

Despite the good intentions of these activities, I imagine it's disenfranchising and disheartening exercise for adopted and foster kids, or anyone who has not had a stable, known, two-parent upbringing (which, last I checked, was at least 50% of the kids in most schools).  I hope that the teacher is more flexible and sensitive than it appears from the handouts in my daughter's backpack.      

Comments

[manxrules]

Manx! My grandmother is a Manx! She has no tail!

seriously. her folks are from the Isle of Mann.