Personally, I have nothing against vegetarians. I actually have a lot of respect for people who choose, and are able, to abstain from eating animal flesh. And the fact that vegans also abstain from eating dairy products and eggs is a small miracle in itself. Just typing the words 'dairy products and eggs' immediately conjured up a mental image of a breakfast buffet that made my stomach growl. I guess I could become a vegan if I became convinced by a doctor that ingesting another gram of animal flesh would result in instantaneous death, but I wouldn't like it one bit.
This quote by Chris Rock pretty much sums up my views on meat consumption:
"If you are one of the chosen few people on this earth lucky enough to get your hands on a steak, BITE THE SHIT OUT OF IT!!!"
When I read the report, I immediately thought of my sister's oldest daughter. Back when she was in kindergarten or first grade, so we're talking about six years old, she suddenly started saying that she didn't want to eat meat anymore. Up to this point, she would gladly eat pretty much anything that was put in front of her, so I thought her sudden desire to no longer eat meat of any kind was rather strange. Then it hit me: the only logical explanation for this was that either a teacher at her school, another student, or one of her friends' parents was putting this idea into her head.
I'm not sure why, but it really bothered me a lot that somebody would be promoting their own agenda to a six-year-old kid. I told my sister that she should bring this up at the next parent/teacher conference to find out if it was indeed a teacher, and...put a stop to it immediately. I don't mean to just single our vegetarianism; a teacher telling children that "...the Bible says that animals were put on this earth for the nourishment of humans" would cause me an equal amount of disgust...probably more. Teachers promoting their personal views on abortion, gun control, or any other of a multitude of today's "hot topics" has no place in the classroom...as far as I'm concerned.
As it turns out, my sister never brought the issue up with the school. She handled it her own way, and I thought the way in which she handled it was absolute genius. Whenever meat was served at dinner, and my niece would ask if it was meat, my sister would just say "...it's pork!", or "...it's sausage!". My niece would eat it without any hesitation.
So, do I think that the teacher should be fired if he refuses to stop teaching the students about animal cruelty and why he's a vegan?
Yes! He can talk about these things with his own children all he wants.
What do you think?
