Shanghai international school’s dirty joke in children’s textbook angers parents
- International school had already been caught up in a food safety scandal before homework prompted fresh round of complaints
A private international school in Shanghai has promised to punish its deputy principal over a textbook that featured a dirty joke.
The exercise book that was dispatched to 48 eighth-graders of the SMIC Private School in Shanghai featured a joke “Mommy’s Washcloth” that compared a woman’s pubic hair to a washcloth and ended with a punchline about sexual activity.
The joke, listed in a “light and funny” chapter, asked the pupils, who were aged 12 to 13, to write down what they had learned about the joke and what they felt about it as part of their English-language homework during the winter holiday.
The school, which charges fees of between 50,000 and 120,000 yuan (US$7,350-US$30,000) a year, was at the centre of food safety scare in October when parents found rotten tomatoes and onions as well as expired seasoning in the kitchen used to make pupils’ meals.
The principal at the time was dismissed over the scandal.
The latest incident prompted further complaints from parents and one sent the textbook to the Shanghai cultural enforcement squad.