Posted on 09/25/2002 3:54:43 PM PDT by Cagey
A 16-year-old student at Kenwood High School who refused to dissect a cat was forced to abandon her honors anatomy and physiology class Monday, even though her mother offered to buy a computer alternative.
Jennifer Watson, an A student from Essex who cares for a pet cat named Fluffy, resisted dissection as inhumane.
The girl wanted to remain in the class, and her mother proposed buying software for performing simulated dissections on the computer, according to the girl and her mother, Maria Watson. But the teacher threatened to fail the college-bound student if she didn't participate in the dissections.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
You didn't just say it, sweetie, you put it in writing!
And how long have you thought you were a gorilla Mr. Smith?
I hope you never decide to teach science. For most kids, dissections are the highlight of the year.
I disagree. If she doesn't want to dissect a cat they shouldn't force her to.
Honors class? Aren't they elective (aka "a choice")?
I was FORCED to take Phys. Ed. class in school and in order to graduate they required me to run 600 yards a day - or flunk - THAT was inhumane! Then again, I lived a sheltered life, in a world where you couldn't simulate your responsibilities on a computer. The 16 year-old girl was neither forced to take the class or to leave it imho. Her mother said, "She should have the right to choose." It looks to me as if she did.
Can someone please explain a a 4.3 weighted grade point average? I went to school a long time ago, but 4.0 was the very top, and no one got better than a 3.99 because nobody's perfect!
My father-in-law used to keep a hobby herd of Herefords. My wife's little brother named one of the calves one year. Needless to say, when David (the cow) ended up in the freezer, that was kept *very* low key with respect to little brother. . . .
LOL
-PJ
That's called an AUTOPSY...They DO dissections of human cadavers IN MEDICAL SCHOOL.
She's not willing to do the dissection to get out of High School, How's she expect to GET to college?
They do.They're called cadavers.
That's right, but space, disposal, student mental stability and availability considerations leave the human corpses to the med students. Beside that who would donate their body to science knowing the goof offs in the local H.S. were going to get a chance to dissect them?
I graduated in '73 in Alabama..........and we dissected people from "the wrong side of the tracks". All we could afford.
gulp. secrets out, huh? :o)
That's what AP anatomy is supposed to be. Only the mature ones are supposed to get in. IOW only the vey series ones.
It's obvious we attended high school in the dark ages. :o/
Well gee, I'd be pithed too if somebody wanted to cut me apart! (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
No one is FORCING her to dissect a cat. She wants to take an honors anatomy class, part of the REQUIREMENTS for that class is to dissect a cat. If she does not want to fulfill the REQUIREMENTS then she is free to drop the class.
You exhibit the typical liberal misinterpretation of force. Force would be taking all students, and using physical force or coersion to make them dissect a cat against their wishes. This is not being done. They have simply made the dissection part of the learning requirements in an advanced anatomy class. She is free to not fulfill the requirements if she so desires, but she must also accept the consequences of not passing the class.
Freedom and Responsibility, they are inextricably linked. If you want the freedom to make choices you must also accept their consequences.
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