Teenager refuses to kill her chicken for a class project

[jojo54]

Thanks for your comments Whitney and welcome to BYC.

 

[kathyinmo]

Gee, I wish they offered this class when my kids went to school. I think everyone should be able to be self sufficient. Learn what you can at home and at school. This is a class that should be embraced, not ridiculed. Youngsters go hunting. Why would butchering your own chicken be any different than that?

"health and safety of the kids? cruelty toward the chickens?" This leaves me scratching my head. Part of the class should be teaching about the health and safety issues. Cruelty? .... to process and eat a chicken? Sounds like a PITA endorsement to me.

Kids can learn about sex at school, but they shouldn't be taught self-sufficiency? I just don't understand it ..........

 

[annaraven]

Quote:
If you can't conceive of a bunch of teenagers handling knives or processing chickens with no regard to potential disease transmission being a "health and safety issue", or how cutting the chicken necks with no understanding of what they're doing to be "cruelty", well, I guess your viewpoint leaves me scratching my head.

I'm all for self-sufficiency - and for classes in school teaching it. However, a high school course that involves hands-on slaughter of animals needs to be done with much better information up front for the students and the parents, and better information along the way. Finally, instead of killing their own chickens they've raised; why couldn't they have gone to a local farm and participated in a chicken slaughter with people who know what they're doing, and with animals they didn't have emotional attachment to? Seems to me, that would be a better way to introduce the kids to such things than by the process that was provided. Even better would have been to set that up as an extra-credit project. Another possible extra-credit project would be to raise egg-layers and bring in the eggs; or to go investigate a farm that does production. I'm sure there were better ways this could have been handled.

As a parent, I applaud her for making a decision and being willing to accept the consequences of her decision.

 

[matthewschickens]

Thank you Whitney! We really enjoy threads like this

Let the news be heard!

Matthew

 

[theoldchick]

I took home my 'control' subjects. The others I humanely euthanized. No head chopping or neck snapping for me!

 

[Boyd]

Kat's Silly Chickens :

Quote:
How do you think your chicken meat gets on your table?..
They've gotta be killed before you eat them...

By Adults not children​

I don't get this..

Do you realize children at the age of 10 can Deer Hunt with a gun? When I was a kid it was when your parents thought it appropriate for your age and disposition.. then they went with the whole hunter safety and regulating the age? Here's something to think about...

Parenting -
"Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the activity of raising a child rather than the biological relationship.[1]
In the case of humans, it is usually done by the biological parents of the child in question,[2] although governments and society take a role as well. In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent blood relations. Others may be adopted, raised by foster care, or be placed in an orphanage.
The goals of human parenting are debated. Usually, parental figures provide for a child's physical needs, protect them from harm, and impart in them skills and cultural values until they reach legal adulthood, usually after adolescence. Among non-human species, parenting is usually less lengthy and complicated, though mammals tend to nurture their young extensively. The degree of attention parents invest in their offspring is largely inversely proportional to the number of offspring the average adult in the species produces."

Promoting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child......... So teaching a kid how to raise his own food is going to make them a serial killer eh? I know that isn't exactly what you were saying but that is how I read into it.

Parents need to quit being their child's BFF.. They need to be the child's oracle, teacher, mentor and jedi master all wrapped up with a slightly sadistic streak. You have to have that streak, otherwise the kids will learn how to get around the rules or know there is no consequences.

Now for Whitney, not knowing what you were getting into and not being able to opt out I completely understand and empathize with your plight.

 

[Boyd]

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

The best way to learn is hands on.

The kid chose to take the class. Why offer sports classes, art classes, home ec, or other non core subjects, might as well not offer them either. Butchering a meal certainly does not make one a farmer.

I just don't understand what the big deal is in American society about "protecting" and "sheltering" kids from the fact of death or slaughter for food, especially if the family eats meat. It HAPPENS! Meat comes from somewhere.

http://www.whatabusylife.com/_IMAGES/clip-from-newspaper1_LEMS.jpg
-Kankakee, Illinois "Daily Journal"; "Speakout" section 1/4/2009

 

[Boyd]

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.

a big reason a lot of schools are now offering these sort of classes is because now a days how many kids grow up thinking I want to be a farmer..........

In a rural farming community I was the only one of about 100 in my graduating class that wanted to.

Many adults my age and older grew up with their parents in factory jobs thus many of the kids are disconnected from the land and consequently where their food is made. If the parents cannot teach something so personal themselves that's where classes like these really come in handy. Now, I grew up with horses chickens, pet skunks, squirrels, a kennel full of dogs, and on and on and on... and before I jump into owning cows or pigs I have some learning to do, because I was never taught that because my parents and grand parents didn't raise them..

Viscous cycle with no good answer

 

[Organics North]

Whitney

I am happy to see you are sticking with and following through on something that is important to you. Using all the proper channels and tools to make your point be heard in a big way!
If you were my Daughter I would be very proud of you.

It is my opinion that a course on how to have self confidence in ones self.. Or a course in how to apply yourself, and have your thoughts and ideas be heard, using all of the tools and resources available as Whitney did, would be far far more valuable course. (Too many do not speak their mind and follow their peers like sheep.)

As Boyd said, Viscous cycle with no good answer.... Society does not have an answer to this dilemma, let alone us folks on BYC. Many paths many rights and wrongs many personal opinions, when it comes to a subject such as the ethics of food.


ON

 

[herefordlovinglady]

Hi Whitney and chicklett thanks for sharing your story. You are a brave and strong young lady to have taken this on, I am proud of you.