I think you’d all be singing a different tune if your kid came down with a foodbourne illness.  I think that was the initial concern, at least that is what jumped out at me, “thawed in the sun”.  But the teacher said that didn’t happen, so if the food was handled correctly, I don’t see any problem with cooking it and trying it.  Learning should be fun.

I know if they had done this at Hereford when I went there, I would have vomited.  That’s why I did not take Biolory in high school.  Thank God they did not require it back then.  I took Oceanography instead and THAT was bad enough.  I have a really, really weak stomach.  Luckily for me, my parents were very understanding as I am with my children. 

Sorry but, I have to disaree that dissecting ANYTHING could possibly be fun.  At least not for me!  If either of my children ever came home and said they did not want to participate in something like that because it would gross them out or upset them, I would not hesitate to keep them home that day or pick them up early.  That’s what my mom did for me because she was the same way and she understood.  She would have rather have me miss that class than to get a call from the school stating that her daughter fainted or vomited in class! 

I did faint in elementary school once and I know how very traumatic and embarassing it was for me.  I was mortified and did not want to go back to school.  Not every child, or adult for that matter, can stomach stuff like this. 

If my child wanted to partcipate in the dissection, that would be fine.  But, I would not wanted him to eat it escpecially if it was thawed in the sun.  I would be concerned about food poisioning in a situation like this.  My daughter did not do this in middle school at SEMS but, I am glad I am aware of it now before my son goes there in a few years.

I could have never been a doctor or nurse, that’s for sure!  ; )

Oh, I would never try it either!  Someone once tried to make me try squid and I thought I was going to lose it just looking at it, but I can’t eat a lot of things like rice or tapioca pudding just because of the look, texture… I don’t know what, but I can relate!

BevyJean - 06 May 2008 02:48 PM

Oh, I would never try it either!  Someone once tried to make me try squid and I thought I was going to lose it just looking at it, but I can’t eat a lot of things like rice or tapioca pudding just because of the look, texture… I don’t know what, but I can relate!

Sounds like a food texture problem, people hate calamari due to the rubber chew factor.  I bet you love egg drop soup Bev

Chris_McGraw - 06 May 2008 02:57 PM

BevyJean - 06 May 2008 02:48 PM

Oh, I would never try it either!  Someone once tried to make me try squid and I thought I was going to lose it just looking at it, but I can’t eat a lot of things like rice or tapioca pudding just because of the look, texture… I don’t know what, but I can relate!

Sounds like a food texture problem, people hate calamari due to the rubber chew factor.  I bet you love egg drop soup Bev

Dude- I can’t even look at that stuff!!!

BevyJean - 06 May 2008 04:08 PM

Chris_McGraw - 06 May 2008 02:57 PM

BevyJean - 06 May 2008 02:48 PM

Oh, I would never try it either!  Someone once tried to make me try squid and I thought I was going to lose it just looking at it, but I can’t eat a lot of things like rice or tapioca pudding just because of the look, texture… I don’t know what, but I can relate!

Sounds like a food texture problem, people hate calamari due to the rubber chew factor.  I bet you love egg drop soup Bev

Dude- I can’t even look at that stuff!!!

<--- Keeping his Chinese food to himself so Bev doesn’t lose it...hehe

As a teacher, parent complaints come with the job.  The sad reality of this story is that the administration did not support their teacher.

mamma - 07 May 2008 06:50 AM

As a teacher, parent complaints come with the job.  The sad reality of this story is that the administration did not support their teacher.

5coops - 07 May 2008 10:24 AM

mamma - 07 May 2008 06:50 AM

As a teacher, parent complaints come with the job.  The sad reality of this story is that the administration did not support their teacher.

the way things have been lately, seems parents have the upper hand every time for every little complaint

Well I wish it would work with the taxes!

mamma - 07 May 2008 06:50 AM

As a teacher, parent complaints come with the job.  The sad reality of this story is that the administration did not support their teacher.

All that would have had to been done is to write a more detailed permission slip to state what the science lab included. Were there any ill effects as a result of the children eating the dissected food? If not, no harm done but what happened if a child had a seafood allergy and somehow didn’t connect the two? Don’t know just a thought. I guess just a lesson learned for the teacher?

Parent permission slips were sent home and required to be signed so that would have prevented a seafood allergic student from participating.  I guess my concern is the teachers involved not being supported by their administration for coordinating a fun way for kids to learn (hands on).  I think - my opinion - there is a direct relationship between the way teachers are treated by admin in the district and the unusually high resignation rate of professionals.  Other districts are not having this problem like we are.  We have awesome teachers and I cringe every time I read another resignation on the board agenda.

mamma - 15 May 2008 06:37 PM

Parent permission slips were sent home and required to be signed so that would have prevented a seafood allergic student from participating.  I guess my concern is the teachers involved not being supported by their administration for coordinating a fun way for kids to learn (hands on).  I think - my opinion - there is a direct relationship between the way teachers are treated by admin in the district and the unusually high resignation rate of professionals.  Other districts are not having this problem like we are.  We have awesome teachers and I cringe every time I read another resignation on the board agenda.

I guess I can see your point to. Hopefully they go to another place where they are treated right by their admin.  That’s unfortunate and hopefully something like this didn’t cause a resignation.  If the teacher was counseled it should have been minimal because it wasn’t really a crisis, just maybe a learning experience that next time he/she will be more specific with the permission slip to leave no room for error. Its called CYA so that parents can’t misinterpret anything and admin can’t either. That way the teacher is covered. Unfortunately, that seems like the world we live in you have to be proactive that way.

My son participated in both the dissection and the feasting, which surprised me. He’s usually fairly picky. What really shocked me was that when we went out to dinner for Mother’s Day, he ordered calamari!!! And ate it all! So, I think the whole science class vs culinary class was a huge success. For us, anyway. And kudos to the teacher for providing him w/ the experience. Yes, I did email her to offer my support.

Unfortunately it is too late for that.  The administration already put a stop to eating it.  Their is little fun at SESD - many teachers state that they are just putting in their time and the ones suffering are the students.  It truely breaks makes me sad.

mamma - 16 May 2008 09:53 PM

Unfortunately it is too late for that.  The administration already put a stop to eating it.  Their is little fun at SESD - many teachers state that they are just putting in their time and the ones suffering are the students.  It truely breaks makes me sad.

Obviously, they put a stop to it because they were reacting to parental complaints. 

If they hadn’t put a stop to it, I’m pretty sure you would use that as evidence of how terrible they are also.

Broken record.