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I stand with Jaftha and Anderson in this matter. The teacher was doing something to help the learners feel more comfortable in their surroundings, when placed in an unfamiliar environment people tend to group up with those who look more similarly to themselves or their families.

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Earlier research revealed that the lower portion of a brain region called the "medial prefrontal cortex" (MPFC) is active when people consider themselves or people like them, and the upper portion of the MPFC indicates judgments about different people. Psychopaths, who have little empathy, have faulty MPFCs.

The Harvard team reports today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the same brain region is engaged both when we are introspective about ourselves and when we make inferences about the minds of others who have leanings perceived to be similar to our own.

Participants were all caucasian and viewed photographs of people of the same colour. Some were described as socially and politically liberal, while others were described as being conservative, fundamentalist Christian Republicans.

The study revealed the lower MPFC was active when participants answered questions about themselves and when they answered questions about the thoughts, feelings, and preferences of people who had the same political leanings. The region did not activate when participants considered the minds of dissimilar people.

Because the MPFC plays a role in when we think about ourselves, the find suggests that we empathise more easily with what is going through the mind of those of the same political orientation, and see them as we see ourselves, rather than build up a judgement on a range of objective knowledge about a person.

"What's perhaps most interesting about the research," she explains, "is that it suggests that we may automatically think about the minds of other people in the way in which we think about ourselves, but that this courtesy may be automatically restricted to those we perceive at first glance to be similar."

"Ongoing research in our lab is investigating the possibility that this region may spontaneously engage more during consideration of members of one's racial ingroup than members of one's outgroup," adds Ms Jenkins.

However, she stresses that even if there are differences "it wouldn't necessarily tell us anything about 'attitudes' on race and ethnicity (it's perfectly possible to like someone who is different from yourself), but rather something more like the extent to which our brains automatically assume that our own mind may (or may not) serve as a valid model for the mind of a racially or ethnically dissimilar person".

The roots of being able to discriminate between races may go deep, according to a 2006 study at Tel Aviv University which involved caucasian infants raised in Israel, African infants raised in Ethiopia, and Ethiopian infants raised in Israel.

The team found that when presented with photos on a screen, the white Israeli infants preferred looking at new faces of their own race; African babies raised in Ethiopia preferred to look at African faces. But the Ethiopian-Israeli infants, who had been exposed since birth to people of both races, showed no preference.

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We prefer people we think are similar to ourselves

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Earlier research revealed that the lower portion of a brain region called the "medial prefrontal cortex" (MPFC) is active when people consider themselves or people like them, and the upper portion of the MPFC indicates judgments about different people. Psychopaths, who have little empathy, have faulty MPFCs.

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The teacher was looking out for those learners. This isn't even about race. It's about a learning barrier and the barrier was language. We don't know what happened before that. We are also quick to point fingers but we say we don't see "colour"... So, why is this an issue? Why is this a topic of conversation. Shouldn't you have looked at the picture and seen "children"? Why do you see "race"?

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I think the teacher had pure intentions. Maybe the teacher wanted to show the parents how cute their children looked, as it were the beginning of a new academic year for them. Also, i think the manner in which they were seated were not done on purpose or with a motive. Children will remain children, and they too form their own cliques (circle of friends) maybe they just decided to sit with their friends for that specific day.

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This is becoming more and more evident in public where incidents like these are taking place and it not only effects us as parents but also teachers and learners experiencing similar issues

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Race Controversy at school, making headlights.
At Primary School Schweizer-Reneke a case of case of race controversy were reported. The teacher of this primary school class where pupils were allegedly separated based on their race has been suspended with immediate effect, says NW Education MEC Sello Lehari. The MEC says the teacher who took the picure has been suspended and there will be a replacement.
In the picture it is evident showing about four black pupils seated separately at a desk from a larger group of white pupils at another desk. This picture went viral on social media.
This class teacher initially shared the photograph on the school's WhatsApp group.
While other parents were thankful for the picture, the mother was irate when she discovered that her child and three other black pupils had seemingly been isolated.

Firstly the question who should ask ourselves is, was this WhatsApp group where the picture was sent to a safe haven?
Secondly did the parents give the school permission to take pictures of their children and then to distribute it in this group?
And Thirdly were the motives of the teacher pure or were she aware of what she were doing?
Think about it and please share your thoughts on this article. https://m.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/learskool-schweizer-reneke-teacher-suspendedover-race-controversy-20190110 . Please Comment on these questions raised above.