To ask for DD to be excused from this?

[TravellingSpoon]

DD is in secondary school and this week they will be dissecting chicken wings, not a demonstration, each child is supposed to have their own and will do it as a whole class task.

DD is a vegetarian (her choice) and is really not happy about doing it and has asked that I ask for her to be excused from it, but is worried that she will be made to sit in isolation for that lesson which is a fate worse than death.

AIBU to ask for DD to be excused from the lesson?

What does she want to do once she is adult and working?

She can pass the exam without doing the dissection. It's less immediately informative, relying on pictures, video etc. So if she could observe that would be better for her understanding. But yes, she can sit it out. Schools always have alternative sessions ready for this.

As long as she is making an informed decision, being veggie/vegan does restrict job and leisure options, obviously. She can choose how to deal with this and any future similar situations.

Just because she chooses not to eat mean, doesn't mean that she needs to pretend that animals don't exist.

Er..... what????

Yes absolutely right that she should be able to choose but if the knowledge is part of the syllabus then she well have to learn it somehow.

I'm sure there will be plenty of others who won't want to do that! Definitely ask that she be excluded, she won't be the only one. Poor chickens

You should ask for her to be excused from cutting up the chicken wing herself but not from the whole lesson. That's ridiculous. Does she intend to avoid learning about animal biology altogether?

Buying meat sand so supporting the meat trade and handling meat herself are completely different issues from reading about it, looking at it, learning about wing structure, muscles, feathers, whatever.

You don't need to cut up dead stuff to learn it FFS!

It might sound dramatic to you but I would actually feel it was as gross as cutting up a dead person for me.

If your daughter doesn’t want to join in that is fair enough, but she has to go and do the work she is given in the place that the teacher sends her! Isolation won’t be a punishment, it’s just supervision.

I don't quite understand what you learn from it if you're never going to do it outside of school.

Anatomy of a human arm. Observation and sketching skills. Safety. The ability to do something outisde your normal comfort zone requiring concentration and fine motor skills. Hopefully a bit of passion for biology.

My answer with stuff like this is that my kids need to speak to the teacher themselves. If she's old enough to do this prac she's old enough to discuss it with the teacher.

What year is she in? We would never force a student to do a dissection if they didn't want to, and it's always handy to have some notice so you can provide some work for them to do! If she can stay in the room and not take part then that is easier to organise than finding someone to supervise her (which is where 'isolation' might come in if that was the only available system?)
If she is A level and it is the required dissection practical for OCR then there is a celery option but it requires specific stains for the microscopy, so give plenty of notice!

If she has a moral objection about the use of animal parts she should be excused. If she just thinks it is icky she should suck it up. But I can't see the issue with her being in isolation if excused - you have to be willing to stand by your morals if they are important to you (I say this as a veggie you have to fight to be excused animal dissection and cooking meat dishes as a teen).

Definitely ask that she be excluded, she won't be the only one.

In all the times I've done this prac I can only ever recall one child not wanting to. I doubt there will be many who opt out.

In my experience kids learn squeemishness. If adults don't make a fuss and deal with things in a factual way, they tend to manage their anxieties very effectively.

YANBU OP, she wouldn’t be put in isolation at the school I work at, just in another classroom/with the head of year with independent work to do. Just the same as the students whose parents refuse to let them do sex ed lessons

They’re not dissecting in order to eat. They’re dissecting to learn about anatomy. It’s a vital skill on the path to creating veterinary students, an improving outcomes in animal welfare.

Dig deeper with your DD. Ask her why she vegetarian, really probe her. Then ask her why she doesn’t want to dissect a chicken wing. It’s one thing being squeamish, another using her vegetarianism as an excuse.

I’d be interested to know, actually, how many vets are vegetarian.

I always gave the option to opt out of dissections - better that than someone passing out or throwing up, I reckon.

Trouble is, if she doesn't want to be in the room where can the teacher put her that isn't isolation?

Does she intend to avoid learning about animal biology altogether?

They will very likely have learnt about the structure of the wing in a previous lesson. I think my sons year was a heart dissection, they learnt the theory in the lesson before the dissection. He didn’t do the dissection and still got a 9 in GCSE Biology so clearly knew all he had to. He’s now doing A level Biology and didn’t do the dissection again, not sure what it was.

I actually agree she should observe, just not be forced to physically take part.

@NeverMetANiceOne

Just because she chooses not to eat mean, doesn't mean that she needs to pretend that animals don't exist.

What a dumb comment

My dd leaves the class and sits with the SENCO if she can't handle something in a lesson.

she isnt eating it, humans are dissected by medical students etc for education purposes, we learn through research and looking at tissue etc as it helps us explore new treatments etcs.. I dont see the issue myself

I think some people are missing the point.

The DD will no doubt be allowed to sit out of the lesson but she doesn't like the provisions she thinks the school have made for those who choose to.

Back in the day (a few decades ago now... ) I opted out of dissections in biology class. Just point blank refused, so I sat at the back of class looking the other way and reading a text book. The teacher let me get on with it, no punishment, and no parental involvement.
Mind you, this teacher knew I had previously fainted clean away in her class when she was just talking about blood...
I recall the class did dissections of pig's eyes, whole frogs, and cow's lungs at various times, so if it is only a chicken wing that is very tame - you see those on a dinner plate! (I speak as a vegetarian of four decades).

Could she come to an agreement with the teacher herself? Better than involving a parent and making a meal big deal of it.

Why can't she ask to be excused herself? That's what I did during dissection lessons 25 years ago.

In all the times I've done this prac I can only ever recall one child not wanting to. I doubt there will be many who opt out.

In my sons GCSE group, he was one of about 10 that didn’t do it, out of 24.
At A level he was one of 6. There is only 15 in the class.

I think that your request is reasonable and as the school will know who is vegetarian, perhaps suggest the option is offered to all vegetarians in her class.

I think that a video or something via YouTube could achieve the same aims, incidentally, but I failed biology O level!