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New Science Curriculum Aims to Curb 'Animal Rights' Influence
CNSNews.com ^ | 10/28/03 | Marc Morano

Posted on 10/28/2003 2:40:33 AM PST by kattracks

(CNSNews.com) - A new science-based educational curriculum has been launched to help elementary and middle school students appreciate the role of science in their lives and to counter the animal rights-based curriculum known as humane education.

"Misinformation gets skewed into the spin of those types of [humane] curriculums, and all of a sudden, kids become zealots for a cause that they really don't completely understand, and they have never been given the whole picture," M. Sue Benford, executive director of the Ohio Scientific Education & Research Association (OSERA), told CNSNews.com.

OSERA is a member of the national group, States United for Biomedical Research, which currently has educational affiliates in 20 states.

Benford's group is introducing a science-based curriculum for 4th through 8th graders in 42 Ohio schools this fall. The curriculum, which Benford calls "fantastic," introduces students to scientific topics such as animal laboratory testing, diseases, health, food safety and the development of vaccines.

"A lot of times, kids don't even think that science relates to them. If you ask them what subject in school has absolutely no connection to real life, many of them will say science," Benford said.

The new science-based curriculum comes at a time when "humane education," which advocates say includes compassion for animals, awareness of environmental problems like so-called global warming and overpopulation, as well as non-violence, is expanding into the U.S. public school system.

Seventeen states now mandate aspects of the humane education curriculum, and two charter schools - one already open in Harmony, Fla., and another planned near Sacramento, Calif. - are devoted entirely to teaching the curriculum.

The humane education curriculum's emphasis on animal rights and welfare has prompted the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to support a new taxpayer-funded Humane Education Learning Charter School, which received approval earlier this month in California's San Juan Unified School District.

The planned charter elementary school in California will encourage students to "examine [their] cultural assumptions regarding the inherent value of different species and nature" and help them to "explore [their] responsibility toward earth and other human and non-human beings," according to the California-based New World Vision Institute, one of the supporters of the school's curriculum.

Benford is eager to challenge the animal rights aspects of humane education.

"There is a difference between us and them. We do not believe that animals have the same rights as humans," Benford said.

OSERA's curriculum advocates for animal laboratory testing and opposes animal rights, placing it at odds with much of what humane education teaches.

"Kids don't understand when they are contacted by animal rights organizations such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) or any of the other groups, for every cause there is an effect," Benford said, referring to what she sees as the great benefits of animal biomedical research.

"They don't understand that if someone goes in and destroys a laboratory where maybe 20 years of research has been underway to cure, let's say, smallpox or anthrax or cancer, somebody may die for that," Benford added.

But PETA fired back and accused Benford's group of "brainwashing kids."

"It's indicative of how desperate the apologists of vivisection have become that they are stooping to this level," said Alka Chandna, manager of PETA's campaign to end animal experimentation.

"They know perfectly well that children have a natural empathy for animals, and they know perfectly well that our message resonates very well with children for that reason," Chandna told CNSNews.com. "These are all things that are motherhood issues, and children understand those things," she added.

Chandna maintains that the benefits of animal medical testing have been greatly exaggerated and accused OSERA of "adding lies to the curriculum and brainwashing kids and obfuscating facts by oversimplifying."

"We are not rats. We are not mice. We are not dogs. We are not cats. We are human beings. We are different," Chandna said.

But Benford disagreed with PETA's contention that animal medical research is unnecessary. "I am one of the oldest childhood cancer survivors, so I learned at a very early age that scientific research and animal research goes into affecting real-life changes," she said.

Benford cited her daughter's 4th grade class as an example of how today's elementary school kids have already been indoctrinated into the animal rights ideology.

When the 4th grade teacher told the class that animals were used in research to produce modern medications, many students in the classroom said, "that's terrible, that's awful," Benford recounted. When the teacher asked, "Can you come up with an alternative - [the students] said, 'yeah, test it on old people,'" Benford said.

The students' reply, Benford said, proves that they lack understanding of the issue. "I think a lot of times, kids are targeted by those [animal rights] groups because they don't have that awareness," she said.

See Earlier Story:
Compassion-Based Schools Teach Kids 'Untrue Drivel,' Critic Charges
(Oct. 20, 2003)

Listen to audio for this story.

E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.


Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.




TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: animalrights; education; humaneeducation; peta; scienceeducation

1 posted on 10/28/2003 2:40:33 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
When the 4th grade teacher told the class that animals were used in research to produce modern medications, many students in the classroom said, "that's terrible, that's awful," Benford recounted. When the teacher asked, "Can you come up with an alternative - [the students] said, 'yeah, test it on old people,'" Benford said.

Ah yes, the old, disabled, and/or infirmed are not human, so why not??!! < /sarcasm>

2 posted on 10/28/2003 2:45:52 AM PST by Aracelis
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To: kattracks
humane education curriculum

I guess this goes along with gay education, multicultural education, and all the many other things the public schools "teach" that have nothing to do with reading, writing and 'rithmetic.

The Muslim world is not going to have to continue to physically attack us to bring us down: we'll be able to become as backward as they are all on our own.

3 posted on 10/28/2003 2:47:30 AM PST by livius
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To: Piltdown_Woman
They want Grandma to be a guinea pig???

The Consequences of Casual Conversations

4 posted on 10/28/2003 2:50:12 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: kattracks
I can remember a time in Mi when 5th grade boys and up would bring their .22 single shot rifles to school so that they could hunt rabbit on the way home. Times have really changed, and not for the better. The do gooders, wacko special interest nutcases are ruining this country.
5 posted on 10/28/2003 2:51:05 AM PST by exnavy
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To: kattracks

"But I thought if I just sang 'I looooove yooooouuuu' to the bear, he'd love me back...."

6 posted on 10/28/2003 3:18:07 AM PST by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
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To: kattracks
When the teacher asked, "Can you come up with an alternative - [the students] said, 'yeah, test it on old people,'" Benford said.

What are we raising? Dear God in Heaven save us from this wicked generation.

7 posted on 10/28/2003 3:27:34 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Maybe I should cut back on the coffee...)
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To: kattracks
"We are not rats. We are not mice. We are not dogs. We are not cats. We are human beings. We are different," Chandna said.

Animal rights organizations are such a thoughtless crew. Perhaps someone should remind them that it is for the similarities, not the differences, with humans that animal models are used.

Sadly we live in a world where most peole on all sides of most issues think "rights" are something we can stipulated like our favorite color or our parent's religion. We may adore animals or protect animals, but the hard facts of rights has no direct application to animals.

In short, it doesn't even make sense to say that animals have rights. In the world I've observed, only humans have been capable of rights.

8 posted on 10/28/2003 3:29:37 AM PST by beavus
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Interesting
9 posted on 10/28/2003 3:33:05 AM PST by DefCon
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To: beavus
They forget that cancer can occur in animals as well. If we can cure them, there's a greater possibility that we can cure cancer in humans.
10 posted on 10/28/2003 3:38:59 AM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: kattracks
Test it on old people?

These kids are the next storm troopers in training. They need to be reminded what the Nazis are. They need to be taught what happens to Nazis who kill old people.

What's needed is a travelling holocaust museum to visit every public school in America.
11 posted on 10/28/2003 6:20:35 AM PST by sergeantdave (You will be judged by 12 people who were too stupid to get out of jury duty)
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: Cronos
They forget that cancer can occur in animals as well.

They didn't forget, they never learned it to begin with. Such goes with the below comment:

and all of a sudden, kids become zealots for a cause that they really don't completely understand, and they have never been given the whole picture

Kids who come out of high school with very little knowledge of life and society tend to be easily brainwashed in college and end up advocating for animal rights or marching in peace protests of which they know little about.

This program that's being statrted in Florida and California is one of MANY social programs that need to be implemented in school. High school should really be 5 years. The fifth year being used to teach them consumer education, state codes/laws, etc.

13 posted on 10/28/2003 8:37:03 AM PST by m1-lightning (Lick your fingers and touch two pinball machines at the same time.)
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To: farmfriend
Ping.
14 posted on 10/28/2003 9:30:50 PM PST by PeaceBeWithYou (De Oppresso Liber!)
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To: kattracks; AAABEST; Ace2U; Alamo-Girl; Alas; amom; AndreaZingg; Anonymous2; ApesForEvolution; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

For real time political chat - Radio Free Republic chat room

15 posted on 10/28/2003 9:32:22 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: sergeantdave
What's needed is a travelling holocaust museum to visit every public school in America.

Except that I fear, rather than impact their lives, the images of the holocaust would instead be thought of as 'cool'. Without compassion and respect, what with the proliferation of movies like Kill Bill and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they're just images without any true meaning to these kids.

16 posted on 10/28/2003 10:28:40 PM PST by yhwhsman ("Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small..." -Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: farmfriend
BTTT!!!!!!
17 posted on 10/29/2003 3:12:48 AM PST by E.G.C.
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To: Cronos
They forget that cancer can occur in animals as well. If we can cure them, there's a greater possibility that we can cure cancer in humans.

These PETA folks should ask their vets what medications they are giving to their pets. They would find that many of them are the same ones used in humans.

If it works in both an animal and a human, then it is a GOOD animal model, if it doesn't, then it is a BAD animal model. And there are many good animal models.

If PETA wants to attract any sincere human with an IQ over 40, they need to stop the lying about animal models not being useful in understanding human disease.

18 posted on 10/29/2003 2:29:56 PM PST by beavus
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