Girl, 16, forced out of anatomy class

Baltimore Sun ^ | 9-25-2002 | Jonathan D. Rockoff

[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.

[Cagey]

The anatomy is very close to the human (except for the absence of a heart)

Funny stuff!

[sneakers]

http://www.earlthedeadcat.org/

[Doe Eyes]

Somehow I was able to get through college biology without dissecting a cat.

[sneakers]

Me too - oh, I forgot - I took geology! silly me!

[discostu]

Nothing compared to some of our jokes. The next year I had study hall the same period my bio teacher had a HUGE class (and she was really cute, and I had a normal 14 year old boy's level of hormones) so I volunteered to help her with the class (no extra credit or nothing... hormones). I actually got to pith a couple of frogs, that's a little creepy. Helping the kids (kids! they were 1 year younger than me) with the disection was pretty fun.

One really cool thing we did: get one of those big eyedropper thingies (it's got some technical name but I forgot it) and we put them down their throat then blew in the other end and inflated their lungs. Can't do that in a computer simulation.

[frodolives]

Our dissection cat in nursing school was named "Ophelia" We'd enter the lab and softly call "Her, kitty kitty kitty!" At least WE smiled. They got cheap cats preserved in something other than formaldehyde, and they began going green after about four weeks. Of twenty kitties, only three made it to the finals. What an aroma!

We nursing students had lab just before dinner, and could clear the dining hall by identifying hunks we were about to consume ("Oh, look at the pertoralis on this one, Fran!")

and remember... Cat- the Other White Meat!

[realpatriot71]

You can easily make it through biology without disecting a cat, but if you take anatomy you have to disect.

[steve-b]

People whine over the stupidest stuff.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to invent a self-consistent system of thought that allows you to mock Miss Watson while still maintaining that it is wrong for the public school system to require students to violate personal conscience and parental guidelines.

[sneakers]

LOL! I remember my biology-major friend (now my brother-in-law) chasing some of the girls in our commuter lounge (very immature college guy!) with a frog skin he got from his dissection class. Man, those things are like rubber!

[Doe Eyes]

Do you really think a High School level biology course should fail a 16 year old girl that is not emotionally capable of dissecting a cat? This is High School, not Med School.

[Cagey]

I see you're a med student and because of your experience I think your insight on this thread is valuable.

I think the girl was wrong to take the class in the first place if she knew a cat was going to be dissected and that bothered her. However, do you think it is necessary that high school students, even if they are in an honors program, dissect cats? I can see college anatomy and especially pre-med and med school anatomy classes, but high school? What do you say?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Sure. Every kid whose parents are pushing them to beef up their school record, in order to impress colleges that the kids may not even care about, along with every kid who has to be put in the class to prove that the AP program isn't racially discriminatory, are in those classes.

Sorry, but I don't buy for a minute that cat dissections are an important part of high school biology, any more than blowing up model volcanoes is an important part of high school chemistry, or putting condoms on bananas is an important part of high school social studies.

[Sungirl]

Up yours. You ASSume alot. If this was for medical school it would be different. But a high school anatomy class is a far cry from being a physician. You need to quit ASSuming things.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Do you kiss your Mother with that mouth Sungirl......... lol....... you are so predictable....... thanks for the laugh........

[realpatriot71]

Do you really think a High School level biology course should fail a 16 year old girl that is not emotionally capable of dissecting a cat?

I hate to see anyone fail, but in this case, she should not get any points for this exercise. If she fails, that's where the chips fell. Anatomy cannot truely be studied without disection, and this girl knew she was taking the advanced section of this class.

[Sungirl]

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?

Alot of goof offs learn on cadavers.....

[realpatriot71]

However, do you think it is necessary that high school students, even if they are in an honors program, dissect cats?

Yes I do, maybe not necessarily cats, but something (rat, pig, rabbit, etc.) That's what anatomy is.

You think I'm too harsh?

[realpatriot71]

Alot of goof offs learn on cadavers.....

If only you knew . . . LOL

[GovernmentShrinker]

Kids ideas of the "highlights" of a class rarely correspond to the most important components from an academic standpoint.

[Doe Eyes]

Do you know that the girl signed up for this class knowing she would have to dissect a cat? It used to be frogs.