Exactly. At best, they can come and say that, but a Democratic politician ought to show up too, and explain the other side, and the teachers should have the kids compare/contrast the two viewpoints and list pros/cons, etc…
But for one side to show up and essentially preach their viewpoint to children as if it was fact? Not acceptable except in situations where the “viewpoint” isn’t really a viewpoint, but actual accepted scientific fact. For example, if someone came in and gave a talk about kids needing to get their flu shots, I wouldn’t have a problem with that, as it’s not proselytizing any more than talking about kids eating a balanced diet is proselytizing.
I am going to write to the principal tomorrow to express my concern.
I spoke to two pediatrician friends today (one of whom has a kid in the class and who already wrote to the principal) who confirmed that it is a very bad idea from a nutritional point of view for kids of this age to try veganism.
It’s interesting to see how many people here are reacting to the shock video part of my message. It is true that this was inappropriate, and the school has apologised for it. But what bothers me more is that they invited an actual activist to the school (even without a shock video). This is an excerpt from the email that they sent yesterday (in anticipation of reaction to the video):
“…Yesterday morning, a guest speaker spoke to the students about ‘veganism’. As an activist, his goal is to try to convince others to understand his point of view…”
It’s also interesting to point out that the message also said this:
“…The teachers have had some follow up conversations, with their classes. We will endeavour to follow up with the students further to help them understand the power of persuasion held by media and how it can be used to convince, what activism is, and the role of activists. These are important concepts that our students will explore over their many years here at school…”
So they are trying to spin the whole thing to be not about the subject matter, but about the role of activists…
Ironically, it turns out that my daughter didn’t actually attend the presentation. She doesn’t remember where she was at the time… :smack:
I’m okay with waiting until they are about 12 y.o. So what’s that… grade 6?.. middle school? Isn’t that the typical age where sex ed is introduced in schools?
With respect to food choices, if they are old enough to be given a choice about what they want to eat, they are old enough to know what their choices are. Or am I wrong?
I don’t think the diet is necessarily a bad idea for kids: WebMD agrees, and I couldn’t find any reputable pediatrician association disagreements. Spinning it as a study in activism sounds a little hinky to me, though: I suspect it was a well-intentioned effort to show a different point of view, not understanding how shocking the presentation would be.
That’s cool. I’d be fine with discussion of choices in a health class or whatever. Not from a vegan “activist” True story: my kids eventually got the idea to start asking “Where does this food come from” when they were, I don’t know, 6 or 7 or something. “From a pig” or “From a cow” or whatever is what I told them. I was inwardly hoping they didn’t start with “I don’t want to eat a nice pig” or something similar. Not because it’s not a valid choice, but it seems like it would be very difficult to prepare nutritious meals for children with those types of issues.
I think you’ve expressed something fundamental about the reactive push back against diets that depend heavily on meant consumption. To adjust one’s thinking and habitual cooking practices from meat based to non-meat based is difficult. I admit to struggling with it myself almost daily. For many good reasons, I would like to be able to eliminate meat from my diet. But I do love the taste of it, and I’m a pretty good cook whose repertoire is largely focused on meat being the star of the meal. I can make a lot of things that are not meat. A lot. But my go to is meat and it’s been an exceptionally difficult habit to break. I’ve gone for periods without meat (a few weeks, maybe), but I miss it and I keep coming back.
Honestly, I will be elated when meat production is entirely relegated to vats (from stem cells, or whatever technology emerges), and animals no longer need to be raised and slaughtered for human consumption.
“I don’t care” is the death of discussion, so cool: tie that one up with a bow.
Kids going vegetarian can be complicated, but I strongly favor parents who help their kids in this effort. There are very good reasons to go vegetarian (I say, with a bellyful of chicken soup and pork sandwiches), despite manson’s apathy, and kids who are trying to do good in the world should be encouraged.
My own daughter wants to go vegetarian, but tells me my roast chicken is too delicious. Maybe I should stop roasting chicken.
I know that. But this discussion isn’t “Reasons to become vegan”.
As for your second paragraph, it only holds true if you consider eating less meat to be “trying to do good in the world” However, if my kids came to me and said “We don’t want to eat meat because we don’t want animals to be killed to feed us”, then fine, of course I would support that, there isn’t really an argument against that. That is actually one of the things I say when they ask me now “why do people not eat meat?”
If they came and said “Guy at school said eating meat is destroying the world so we don’t want to eat meat”, then that is a problem and needs discussing.
Could be easy, depending on her reason. If it’s about aminal cruelty maybe y’all can raise chickens like egg-laying pets and occasionally have one for dinner. Homegrown taste better anyway. But if she’s focused on the killin then losing Dad’s roast chicken is the price she pays for her principles–and that’s honorable.
Alternatively, introduce her to some live chickens. My daughter was an omnivore her entire life. She lived with us for 6 months when she was relocating. Interacting with our hens made a huge impact on her and she’s been unable to eat chicken since then. Going full vegetarian seemed like the obvious thing to do, and her fiancee agreed. They’ve been vegetarians now for 5 years.
An atheist at a Catholic school explaining his beliefs would be fine, but if he started going into detail about the Spanish Inquisition I think that would be over the line.
I think there is a line between inviting someone to say, here is my belief/life style and here is why it works for me, versus, here is why not choosing this lifestyle makes you evil.
There are also people who believe that adrenalin makes meat taste better, therefore inflicting fear/pain at slaughter is a good thing. These folks are mad, but should our nine year olds listen to their point of view and watch their videos?
But they are not given a platform at elementary school assemblies to do it. If the parents allow their children to watch TV, then ads for Burger King and KFC are part of the package. But that is with consent of the parents.
Seriously? Who needs assemblies! Big Meat and Dairy lobbies make marketing to parents and kids ubiquitous. How do you think all that pizza ends up in the school cafeterias? Can’t recall last time I heard from the Big Broccoli lobby. Unless it was covered in cheese sauce.
