I am by far not a squeamish person and I’ve done my fair share of dissections, but I don’t think this was appropriate for 5th graders. The doctor sounds like a cool guy for wanting to teach the kids about medicine, but that’s just too young for something so graphic. I mean, just look at how some of the kids got sick from it.
I remember someone bringing a COW’S heart into my class in 5th or 6th grade. From that experience, I suspect that kids that age probably aren’t going to absorb any scientific information from a dissection - just the gross-out, shock value. So I’d say wait until HS or college to get into such a controversial topic, where the students are more likely to get some educational value from the experience.
Could someone just tell me roughly how old would be the children in the fifth grade?
Anyway, don’t you guys have the right to bear arms, or something like that?
Mangetout - 5th graders are about 10 years old.
When I was in school, we did fish and worms in 6th grade, pigs eyes in 7th grade (eyes courtesy of the same meat packing plant) and frogs in the 8th grade. Fetal pigs in 9th grade. I opted out of all dissection (I was considered quite a radical!). This was in a farming community that, for the most part, took things like that casually. Most kids (or at least most boys, some girls) started hunting early. People knew where their meat came from. Still - a cadaver arm probably wouldn’t fly there, then. For me those years were in the '70’s.
StG
I invited my kids to go to the morgue to see dissections and none of them were really interested in seeing it, at any age. I think some people dont have any interest or dont like it.
I prefer, and he should have, gave out invitations and then only showed it to those who wanted to learn, and not subjected the viewing to others who dont care or dont want to learn.
Why, those lucky little… I’ll tell ya, in my day, all we got was a lousy frog. And we had to share our frog with a partner! And that was in 9th grade, after walking to school through the snow!
HEY!!! 
Anyhoo, I would think that would be too much for fifth graders, at least without knowledge before hand. Like someone said, at that age it’s more about shock value.
Should I assume that was up-hill, both ways? :dubious:
And we were glad to do it, by gum! 
You know, I just remembered that my cousins go to Fairview Elementary-I could ask their parents if they heard about it.