Filipino Boy Discriminated Because he used Spoon & Fork to Eat?

@jrdnron (129)
Philippines
October 7, 2008 7:25am CST
Luc Joachim Gallardo-Cagadoc, a 7-year old Filipino boy living in Canada, was discriminated by his school cafeteria supervisor, Martine Bertrand, by isolating him from the other children because he used spoon & fork to eat. Why did she reprimand the boy for using spoon and fork? isnt it that using spoon and fork is proper etiquette? What was she thinking?
3 responses
Shar1979
@Shar1979 (2722)
• United States
7 Oct 08
i didn't know about certain etiquette in Canada but here in US kasi they use fork to eat anything. they only use spoon for soups
jrdnron
@jrdnron (129)
• Philippines
8 Oct 08
ah i see..maybe in Canada, they use fork for everything too and they rarely use the spoon..us Filipinos have been very accustomed to using both spoon and fork. maybe they perceive using both spoon and fork while eating as something unusual.
Shar1979
@Shar1979 (2722)
• United States
8 Oct 08
yep. they eat using fork and knife here. since tayong mga pinoy is accustomed to eating our food using a spoon...caucasians find it really weird. i guess it's the same thing with us to japanese di ba? we find it really weird to use chopsticks when we eat lalo na we're not used to using it
aseretdd
@aseretdd (13730)
• Philippines
8 Oct 08
Something like this happened to me when i was still working abroad... i was always asked why i used spoon and fork when eating... and i would just smile and keep quiet about it... but when i got fed up with the question... i answered... "this is what civilized people use"... and that sent the message... so they stopped asking me... It is so sad that a 7-year old should experience such discrimination...
jrdnron
@jrdnron (129)
• Philippines
8 Oct 08
in the US they use fork for almost everything and they seldom use the spoon. usually for soup. maybe in canada they also do the same. they somehow think using both spoon and fork at the same time is something unsual.
xtedaxcvg
@xtedaxcvg (3189)
• Philippines
7 Oct 08
Well, I really don't know the details of that news but if the school has rules then they need to be followed even if it somehow appears to be discriminating. Now, what they can do is ask their department of education about this matter. All they can do is wait and see.