Teenager refuses to kill her chicken for a class project

[Organics North]

Quote:
We did not have exactly have an "advanced" curriculum at our rural school back in the early 80's... After all I never saw a computer when I went to high school. Glad I took that typing class though...

The more I think about it this is a tough one.. I do not think these classes should be banned in all cases, but taking the life of another animal, is sort of personal, and would be hard for a teacher to cover everyone in the class rooms beliefs on the subject. (For example if I was Jewish, and the slaughter was not Kosher, I may be offended) For me as stated earlier I have my own rituals involved in slaughter.. At least I know my own boys will be well trained in what the "proper IMO" practices are for such a deed, long before they ever get to high school.

ON

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
I became a pretty good woodworker learning a lot of what I know from high school shop classes. You couldn't learn how to raise and butcher a chicken in that time?


Many of our area high schools have voc-ed courses. Everything from agricultural courses, drafting, automotive repair courses, wood and metal working shop courses, general maintenance and repair to home-ec. Not everybody is on the college track. Hands-on trade courses teach skills, build confidence, and guide students towards possible vocational careers.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. Just as I am mine.

Aside from the valuation of my own woodworking skills, none of that was opinion, only facts that I stated.

I happen to agree with you about trade courses. But I do not agree that raising and naming chickens and then processing them has a place in a classroom unless the kids and the parents BOTH know exactly what they are getting into ahead of time. In this particular instance, the parents were not informed, and that is not ok that the school just assumed every parent and every child would be ok with it. Which, obviously, they were not.

If it were my child, I would taken the opportunity to sit down with him, give him the facts, maybe show him some examples, and let him make his own INFORMED decision. My own thoughts on the matter aside - because a 16 year can make their own decisions.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
We did not have exactly have an "advanced" curriculum at our rural school back in the early 80's... After all I never saw a computer when I went to high school. Glad I took that typing class though...

The more I think about it this is a tough one.. I do not think these classes should be banned in all cases, but taking the life of another animal, is sort of personal, and would be hard for a teacher to cover everyone in the class rooms beliefs on the subject. (For example if I was Jewish, and the slaughter was not Kosher, I may be offended) For me as stated earlier I have my own rituals involved in slaughter.. At least I know my own boys will be well trained in what the "proper IMO" practices are for such a deed, long before they ever get to high school.

ON

Here where I live, all those types of teachings are in FFA or 4-H. There are no such courses at any of the schools in our vicinity. there is ONE at the community college and it is an elective.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
A lot of the high schools have cut out the voc-ed programs to focus on core curriculum due to budget cuts and standards based testing by the states. When my oldest son started high school in rural Texas he wanted to do welding in shop class, but the only "shop classes" they had were a couple of ag classes. A teacher told him if he took the introductory ag course he could do some ag welding. They never did get around to welding, but somehow my son took an interest in the chickens that they were talking about in ag class. One day we were driving by the feed store and I asked him if he wanted to get some chicks. He said "Yes", and that was our introduction to raising chickens in the backyard. The following year he transferred to a neighboring school district that had more advanced offerings and took all of the shop and engineering classes that he was interested in, earning a school letter for his involvement in advanced engineering courses and extra-curricular programs.

I am still involved with chickens having upgraded to 2500 organic layer hens on a small farm in Wisconsin, while he is off to the University of Wisconsin majoring in Engineering Physics.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
A lot of the high schools have cut out the voc-ed programs to focus on core curriculum due to budget cuts and standards based testing by the states. When my oldest son started high school in rural Texas he wanted to do welding in shop class, but the only "shop classes" they had were a couple of ag classes. A teacher told him if he took the introductory ag course he could do some ag welding. They never did get around to welding, but somehow my son took an interest in the chickens that they were talking about in ag class. One day we were driving by the feed store and I asked him if he wanted to get some chicks. He said "Yes", and that was our introduction to raising chickens in the backyard. The following year he transferred to a neighboring school district that had more advanced offerings and took all of the shop and engineering classes that he was interested in, earning a school letter for his involvement in advanced engineering courses and extra-curricular programs.

I am still involved with chickens having upgraded to 2500 organic layer hens on a small farm in Wisconsin, while he is off to the University of Wisconsin majoring in Engineering Physics.

Nice story about your intro to chickens. Mine is a bit more humorous and left us both scratching our heads wondering what next.

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
Do you expect to read about cars in Auto Tech or read about cooking in Home Economics.

Let's go this route and discuss Sex Ed and family planning.

Students can learn about Sex without having sex at school. They can learn about putting a condom on a partner without practicing it at school. They can learn about Diaphragms without trying one on at school. And, they can learn about HIV & AIDS, herpes, etc. without experiencing the actual diseases. If my son signed up to take a Sex Ed class, I wouldn't assume the school was going to make him have sex (at school or elsewhere) or watch classmates have sex at school! Nor would I expect them to require him to impregnate a female student so that he could learn where human babies come from.



From everything I have read (not solely the article linked here) there was no course description prior to students signing up that even implied there would be slaughter involved. Students can learn how food is produced without killing animals OR having it done in front of them.

 

[Chicklett]

Hi everyone! Thank you all for all of your thoughts, support and sharing. I just wanted to clarify a few things: one is that I did try to opt out but wasn't allowed..I tried multiple times in fact. Secondly, I did not know what I was signing up for it just said animal science and was one of four options for our science credit. It said nothing about livestock, poultry, or slaughter. And, no one would expect to walk into class at high school and be handed a chick to raise and a knife to kill ..in today's world. Thirdly, My parent's did not get a permission slip for this project and it was a requirement to pass the class..fourthly, that we were not informed about until it was too late to withdraw from the course. If you are not comfortable with change.org version...please check out the many other versions of this event available online...several newspapers, NBC action news, numerous blogs, (reference to certain groups removed by staff, per BYC rules). I welcome everyone to look up Chicklett's facebook and read the information available and newspaper articles. I keep running into the same opposing arguements ...that I could of opted out (not true), that I should have known what i was getting into (not true) etc. BUT...what about killing animals at school in the first place? what about offending large groups of people and traumatizing a handfull of students? what about parental permission? kansas statutes? health and safety of the kids? cruelty toward the chickens? There are so many other concerns related to this event. Please log onto United Poultry Concerns and read more about this. They have been communicating with the school and know a great deal about all of this as well. Otherwise, I have had an overwhelming amount of support and I thank you all very very much for that. i hope that more people will read about it, read all that they can on it. ..and then draw a conclusion. I respect differing points of view as long as you have done your homework. I hope that even if you don't agree with my decision that you can at least respect it or understand. I will always try to do the same for others. I believe the controversy is a blessing because it gets people to talk about or think about the bigger picture. The appropriateness of slaughtering at school, the inhumane way animals are treated in the mass-production food industry and the indifference toward many animals and especially a chicken. I love all of you for caring, reading, posting, supporting and debating. I think you are all beautiful, caring people. This experience has taught me a great deal and I never anticipated the vast numbers of people that would care about "just one chicken." It's a beautiful, amazing thing. The world seems smaller and people seem kinder all of a sudden. I feel hopeful. Thank you all. ~Whitney Hillman & Chicklett

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Thank you, Whitney.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Quote:
Do you expect to read about cars in Auto Tech or read about cooking in Home Economics.

Let's go this route and discuss Sex Ed and family planning.

Students can learn about Sex without having sex at school. They can learn about putting a condom on a partner without practicing it at school. They can learn about Diaphragms without trying one on at school. And, they can learn about HIV & AIDS, herpes, etc. without experiencing the actual diseases. If my son signed up to take a Sex Ed class, I wouldn't assume the school was going to make him have sex (at school or elsewhere) or watch classmates have sex at school! Nor would I expect them to require him to impregnate a female student so that he could learn where human babies come from.



From everything I have read (not solely the article linked here) there was no course description prior to students signing up that even implied there would be slaughter involved. Students can learn how food is produced without killing animals OR having it done in front of them.

Thank you Rozzie for Stating that so well. I agree with every example you gave.
There is NO need to teach a child under the age of 18 how to kill a living animal in a food production class, school is for learning not for killing.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Quote:
Thank you Whitney for all you've cleared up.
and a BIG