Dissection and an understanding Biology teacher

[luvflorida]

The negative threads concerning teachers seem to outweigh the positive posts on here, so I just thought I'd contribute to the positive side.

DD15 is a Sophomore in high school. Last year, as a Freshman, her Science teacher told the class that dissection would be part of their Sophomore Biology experience. I remember daughter coming home from school and saying she would NEVER dissect anything, she just couldn't do it. She's always been very sensitive and just the thought of having to cut something up, even knowing that it's already dead, upset her. She's also a Vegetarian and huge animal lover. At the time, I even posted on the DIS asking about experiences with refusal to dissect in HS.

Well, we knew it was coming, and the last quarter of daughter's Biology class has been devoted to dissection. The first item up for dissection was a big, fat worm. Each student was given his/her own worm to work with. Daughter took one look at her worm and told the Biology teacher that she just couldn't do it. He talked to her and then put her with a friend. The friend did the actual dissection while daughter recorded all the information. Daughter never had to touch the worm.

Throughout the quarter, the class dissected a starfish, a crayfish, a fish heart, and I'm not sure what the last item will be. The teacher always allowed daughter to pair up with someone and never required her to do the actual dissecting. There were several classes were daughter felt sick from witnessing the dissections and from the smells involved. Each time her Biology teacher was very accommodating, allowing daughter to visit the nurse or another classroom. Of course, he might have been concerned about what would have happened if he had made her stay in the room!

For one of the dissection/labs daughter was absent, and instead of having her perform, or witness, the dissection, her Biology teacher told her she could write a report about it instead.

So, in the end, everything worked out fine. Another teacher may have handled things differently, and not been so understanding, perhaps even making daughter feel bad. Another teacher might have required daughter, and us, to go through procedures that require permission from the principal or school board to allow daughter to not participate in the dissections. A number of things could have turned this into a negative experience. Luckily, that didn't happen.

So, here's a for daughter's Biology teacher!

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

That's cool that she had such an understanding teacher. I can see how some people might be er..upset...at having to dissect critters.


TOV

 

[debster812]

This is a great post. Kudos to your DD's biology teacher. Obviously, he knew the right way to handle this.

 

[justjulie]

That's awesome! In circumstances like that, I go out of my way to write a letter to the principal for the teacher's file and request it be copied to the board of education. People are quicker to complain then compliment and it takes the same amount of time - I'd go the extra step and post a letter.

 

[Daxx]

Our science lab has some kind of on-line dissection where you can watch (through video streaming) a dissection and see the whole thing w/o having to do it yourself. It's for the kids who do not want to physically dissect an animal for whatever reasons (PETA, vegetarians, etc.)! They have to watch the dissection and write a report on it, rather than doing the actual cutting themselves. Many students opt for this and the science teacher will run the dissection in one half of the class and the people who want to watch the video go to the library to watch it on-line.

 

[gris gris]

I think this is great! What a wonderful teacher! I was a vegetarian by the time I got to high school and I didn't get to skip the disection. It was really tough to get through.

Although I have to say I don't see much of a difference between having to do the disection and having to watch it. If I really thought about it in high school, I would refused to do either of these. And probably would have failed the class

 

[DizBelle]

What if the whole class refused to dissect?

 

[luvflorida]

I think this is great! What a wonderful teacher! I was a vegetarian by the time I got to high school and I didn't get to skip the disection. It was really tough to get through.

Although I have to say I don't see much of a difference between having to do the disection and having to watch it. If I really thought about it in high school, I would refused to do either of these. And probably would have failed the class

I'm not sure how much she actually watched. She would record whatever information her partner relayed to her. Like I mentioned, she spent part of the time in the nurse's office or in another classroom studying diagrams in her Biology book.

 

[Jennasis]

What if the whole class refused to dissect?

Then hopefully the teacher would be just as accomodating. Honestly though, when i was in HS MOST of the class looked forward to the dissection part of the curriculum...particularly the guys

 

[gris gris]

What if the whole class refused to dissect?

Maybe they'd change the cirriculum to not include disection! IMO disection should take place in an elective class where you're wanting to study disection. I don't recall biology as being an elective class in high school.

 

[Brianne]

What an awesome teacher---I wish I had a teacher like that when I was in school. We not only had to dissect a frog in high school but a fetal pig as well. Then it was also passed around for the final exam. Needless to say, I failed biology that year---I couldn't do it. It still gives me the willies to think about that year!

 

[tiggger1]

in high school our biology class had to disect at cat.there were rumors that one kid actually found a cat that was prego, so refused to do it and took physics 2 the year. I did have to disect in biology in college but we did the worm, a starfish and then a pig fetus.

 

[lajones81]

That's awesome! In circumstances like that, I go out of my way to write a letter to the principal for the teacher's file and request it be copied to the board of education. People are quicker to complain then compliment and it takes the same amount of time - I'd go the extra step and post a letter.

I agree! As a teacher I LOVE when parents speak to our school principal who often relays those comments back to me!