Biology dissection - Year 10

[Dancergirl]

Dd is in Year 10. She hasn't yet decided if she is doing double or triple science for GCSE, this is decided at the end of this year. They are obviously all doing the same science at the moment.

They are doing Human Biology at the moment and this week her class dissected a sheep's heart. Dd is extremely squeamish and didn't want to do it. She was allowed not to take part but her teacher told her to sit at the back of the class and dd wanted to go out the room completely. I'm not exactly sure what happened but dd ended up sitting in a side room but could hear everything going on and it was very unpleasant for her. Another teacher asked her why she wasn't partaking and asked if she was vegetarian (she's not).

This isn't the end of dissection - apparently they have kidneys and eyes coming up in the next few weeks.

I don't know if I'm being precious but I'm slightly annoyed by this. Surely if someone doesn't want to dissect that should be the end of it, they should be allowed to leave the room without a hassle and without being put through the third degree about their reasons.

But that's the point, let one student be unsupervised in the library and there is a perception that all have to be offered it to be "fair".

Certainly not a can of worms the two HT's that I spent most of my career working for wanted to deal with, and one was a scientist himself.

I am generally sympathetic, actually, but what exactly is the difference between dissecting organs and meat? None. Meat is from a body -it is a muscle. If students are eating meat, I think it is important for them to realise it does cone from an animal and to consider that decision. I'm a staunch meat eater, btw, but utterly support vegans. It's the wishy washy middle ground I can't be doing with.

I thought we were past doing things which make us uncomfortable

You can't learn if you don't push yourself into new and yes uncomfortable experiences - she survived!!

We can't just keep excusing students because they don't like it!

Can they not just send her to a different class next door. It might be year sevens learning how plants grow but if she sits quietly at the back and reads then it's fine. She won't be alone. Has adult supervision.

I come across very harshly here but I am actually very nice and would never force a student to stay in a room when they are clearly uncomfortable.

cody it's not that she 'doesn't like it', it makes her feel ill. And that's not her fault.

I've accommodated students in my lab because they didn't want to be around dissection in the lab next door, that's the sensible option. But then again my school isn't massively overcrowded and the kids are well behaved (for the most part) so it wasn't particularly inconvenient.

of course it's different.

all the bits people are dissecting have actually been trimmed off/removed from the cleanly packaged slices of meat you buy.

and actually alot of peolel whine at meat still struggle to eat offal. I don't touch liver heart kidneys etc.

the texture/layers/blood vessels/smell etc are people really so unable to see why someone may find it hard? surely there's a plan in place fir vegetarians vegans religious students unable to touch non halal/kosher meat products etc.

Who eat meat

bloody phone

gid people need trigger warnings fir a picture of spiders on MN yet can't see why a kid can't be in the same room as body parts and blood.

only on MN

Very true giles

I am happy handling raw meat but I STILL wouldn't be comfortable doing a dissection.

Dd said she was physically shaking listening to what was going on next door. She's already worrying about future dissections.

your poor dd.

sounds horrible. I can happily watch surgery on tv, I've assisted in animal surgery, i've been watching gory horrors since I was a young child. I still hate handling meat and don't even bother asking me to deal with the likes of liver etx . I get it

weirdly I can even watch autopsy. but it is weird to be seeing and handling things in a "this needs to be done to help the is person/animal" in which case I'm fine you can hose me in blood, and dealing with it when it's not in an essential situation.

If one child is excused from the lesson, there would be a mass exodus with half the class running up and down the corridors like loons.

It is very important that the schools encourage students to go outside their comfort zone. That's a key part of learning. Grit.

I disagree. it's absolutely not their place at all to do that. forcing is not encouraging.

And if there is a max exodus clearly the teacher didn't know her students well e ough to know they wouldn't cope with the dissection and perhaps scheduling it was a mistake anyway.

DC1 is a meat eater .
DC1 was 'squeamish' during biology dissection and fainted .
DC1 was allowed to leave the room when dissection was planned in subsequents sessions.
DC1 is now a science teacher and says they would allow someone to leave the room if they clearlyf let unwell because of the dissection, though appreciates that some students would 'try it on' .
Hope your dd is OK .

perhaps people should start pushing you lot to exit comfort zone. who fancies a trip to the reptile house at the zoo?

anyone going to watch the school nurse inject students with needles???

or how about I sit here taking a pounding cos I didn't warn you I was about to post a spider or snake pic? 🐍🐍

oh wait, your adults you are deserving of understanding and sympathy. not kids though. .let's make them throw up in a science lesson to prove a point.saves having to have a back.up plan then doesn't it.

Surely by year ten a responsible year ten could sit it out in the school library or such? I mean another year and they will be unsupervised in the workplace in some place.

I think it can be difficult to know for teachers the difference between those genuinely squeamish and those being silly about it.

My dd age 11 at the school open day was the one who inflatated the part disected heart.

Now she's a bit silly about it mainly because lots of the other girls are but I would expect genuinely squeamish to be allowed to leave. When they disect animals (frogs/rats/mice/birds which are in jars in school) she doesn't want to as she has had pet rats and that's fair enough.

I have had a child faint during a dissection- a dissection that in his case he wanted to see. Some people have a very visceral reaction to dissections and quite honestly they can smell much more than a steak, possibly through being less fresh. I had a child once who went very green when we were going through the anatomy of the ear- something about ears made her really wobbly. I come over a bit unnecessary with kidneys whereas eye directions don't bother me. Genuine reactions cant be sorted out by telling the child to get a grip. There is a balance to be struck between not letting kids be drama llamas / helping them get over nerves about a new experience and putting a child in a position where they are actually distressed. The OPs daughter is having an abnormally strong reaction but that is not her fault. If you know your pupils you can see in their face the difference between kids trying it on and those who are actually affected.
Catering for this one child with work in a side room or even in the back of a colleague's class, is unlikely to cause any major issues- in my experience most children enjoy dissection lessons and would rather be in one than doing book work.

If your daughter is fretting about upcoming dissections get her to go and have a chat with the teacher.

I would think a letter to the teacher or head of science or whoever is appropriate would be a good idea. I can understand there are rules in place but there is no point in her feeling ill / fainting in lessons. It would be far more sensible to have her go off to the library (which is probably supervised) for 30 mins and work through the relevant exericse in a book and then return to class when it's over. I'm sure they will know she is not attention seeking or being a drama queen as she's normally a quiet and hardworking girl. Poor thing!

I was 24 before I could even cut up a kidney for the cat and 26 before touching liver. It was so squishy it made me feel ill.

Several months later became a nurse and have worked in operating theatres. Will not have kidneys or liver in my house to this day. You cannot control your distaste for some sensations but you do become more hardy as you age. Sympathies to your daughter OP.

I sympathize, too. My younger DS objects to dissecting things and asked at secondary school open evening if he would have to do them. The answer was that as long as they knew in advance the teacher was fine with him not doing them. Older DS has no problem dissecting things but even he nearly threw up on one occasion, so it really can catch you out. A friend got through rat dissection for A level without a qualm but had to give up biology at Degree level after doing a frog dissection - she did botany and dissected plants instead! She was a committed carnivore but was genuinely traumatised by the frog experience. It wasn't possible for her to get a grip and continue.

In this day and age I thought we were past doing things which make us uncomfortable.

Now I know I'm an old reactionary.
Life is full of uncomfortable moments.
Get over it.
Being asked 2 questions is not an interrogation.
Sheesh!
I am very squeamish about body bits, lest anyone assumes otherwise. I averted my eyes & wrote down info while lab partner poked around inside frogs, etc.

I have an aversion tof vomit and find myself retching in sympathy. I'm not keen on sputum, either. I think, oddly, it's the fact that they're body temperature that does it. But I manage to overcome those feelings to do my job as a nurse. Why would I let that have such control over me that I'd shut off an entire career because of it?

Your DD doesn't like the thought of dissection. But once she'd seen it a few times, she'd realise that it's not all that awful. She doesn't have to love it!

But once she'd seen it a few times, she'd realise that it's not all that awful

Errmm no, if that was the case I would of course be encouraging her.

lougle well done for managing to overcome your feelings. But I would hope as a nurse you would have the understanding that for some people it's not as easy as that. It's not that she 'doesn't like the thought of it', she has very real physical symptoms which are beyond her control.

You only have to read threads on here about people's fears and phobias. Why aren't they being told to 'get a grip' or learn to deal with it?

giles thank you for your support.