Kids send Marcus the Lamb to slaughter

[DisturbedPervert]

But 50 years previously most kids would have been involved in or at least seen the slaughter of farm animals.

I don't know about that.  You'd have to go in to the 19th century before someone in my family was involved in that.

[Valmy]

Agreed (as someone who experienced killing animals)  Let them have their childhood while they can. 

I guess I fail to see how learning about the world ruins people's childhood.  Kids can roll with the punches fairly easily but sheltered adults become disillusioned people.

[Valmy]

But 50 years previously most kids would have been involved in or at least seen the slaughter of farm animals.

I don't know about that.  You'd have to go in to the 19th century before someone in my family was involved in that.

She did say most.

[swallow]

Agreed (as someone who experienced killing animals)  Let them have their childhood while they can. 

I guess I fail to see how learning about the world ruins people's childhood.  Kids can roll with the punches fairly easily but sheltered adults become disillusioned people.

Well my view is that you build a strong adult by giving them security and supporting them as they try new experiences.  This strikes me as half baked, non-individual and quite bureaucratic.  Good for developing the strength of the one kid who voted against the herd though

[DisturbedPervert]

She did say most.

I know.  Did most kids in 1950s America slaughter livestock or watch it happen?  I don't find that likely, but maybe.  But either way I don't think that has much to do with why people eat crappy food these days.

[Valmy]

I know.  Did most kids in 1950s America slaughter livestock or watch it happen?  I don't find that likely, but maybe.  But either way I don't think that has much to do with why people eat crappy food these days.

Both of my parents did, and my father was a city kid.

But yes I am not sure what that has to do with eating KFC.

[Valmy]

This strikes me as half baked, non-individual and quite bureaucratic.

Yeah well it is a school.

[Brazen]

Well my view is that you build a strong adult by giving them security and supporting them as they try new experiences.  This strikes me as half baked, non-individual and quite bureaucratic.  Good for developing the strength of the one kid who voted against the herd though

Yeah, the same classroom democracy that ends up with teddy bears called Mohammed and teachers in jail.

[Brazen]

She did say most.

I know.  Did most kids in 1950s America slaughter livestock or watch it happen?  I don't find that likely, but maybe.  But either way I don't think that has much to do with why people eat crappy food these days.

Maybe 60 years ago would be more realistic for the UK. Then kids either lived in the countryside or, like my parents, were evacuated there from cities during the war.

[swallow]

Well my view is that you build a strong adult by giving them security and supporting them as they try new experiences.  This strikes me as half baked, non-individual and quite bureaucratic.  Good for developing the strength of the one kid who voted against the herd though

Yeah, the same classroom democracy that ends up with teddy bears called Mohammed and teachers in jail.

That classroom democracy was for something that should have been nice - naming a Teddy Bear after one of the kids.  The problem with this is that it's putting children in the position of having to make decisions about killing something they've grown fond of.

[Caliga]

The whole project seems odd.  When I was that age we raised butterfly larvae and released them once they turned in to butterflies.  We didn't raise livestock and send them off to the slaughterhouse.

My mom used to do a thing like that where she would have her classes raise mealworms and then they'd release the resulting beetles into the woods behind her school.

My brother and I used to always steal some of her beetles to feed our pet chameleon with.

[Scipio]

In other news, Reuters journalists suck. "Cull"? My fat thesaurus.

The more I think about this use of the word, the more it pisses me off. Not only is it totally incorrect, I judge that it's being used emotively due to its association with seal culling.

Cull: To heartlessly murder something fluffy.

In American farming, IIRC, culling is something you do for the health of the herd.  Normally, killing an animal for meat is slaughter, not culling.

[Caliga]

In American farming, IIRC, culling is something you do for the health of the herd.  Normally, killing an animal for meat is slaughter, not culling.

Correct.  Like when you eliminate all the cows with foot and mouth disease from a herd... they call that culling.

[Agelastus]

That classroom democracy was for something that should have been nice - naming a Teddy Bear after one of the kids.  The problem with this is that it's putting children in the position of having to make decisions about killing something they've grown fond of.

To be blunt, you are extrapolating something we have not been told. The emotional response to something described as a "farm animal" is probably quite different to that of something described as a "class pet".

I admire the school for the rationality of setting up a program like this, and I applaud the decision to have the kids in control. The number of important lessons regarding economics and the hard nature of personal choices this scheme will create will be of enormous value to the pupils in their adult working lives.

[Strix]

That teacher should be fired. He had a golden opportunity to teach children about the glory of Islam and failed to do so by not killing the lamb in an approved Halal manner.

It's reasons like this that the Muslims hate us.