Post by Bobcat on Oct 29, 2003 10:41:52 GMT -5
If you have kids in school, you need to read this!
New Science Curriculum Aims to Curb 'Animal Rights' Influence
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
October 28, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - A new science-based educational curriculum has been launched to help elementary and middle school students appreciate the role of science in their lives and to counter the animal rights-based curriculum known as humane education.
"Misinformation gets skewed into the spin of those types of [humane] curriculums, and all of a sudden, kids become zealots for a cause that they really don't completely understand, and they have never been given the whole picture," M. Sue Benford, executive director of the Ohio Scientific Education & Research Association (OSERA), told CNSNews.com.
OSERA is a member of the national group, States United for Biomedical Research, which currently has educational affiliates in 20 states.
Benford's group is introducing a science-based curriculum for 4th through 8th graders in 42 Ohio schools this fall. The curriculum, which introduces students to scientific topics such as animal laboratory testing, diseases, health, food safety and the development of vaccines.
"A lot of times, kids don't even think that science relates to them. If you ask them what subject in school has absolutely no connection to real life, many of them will say science," Benford said.
The new science-based curriculum comes at a time when "humane education," which advocates say includes compassion for animals, awareness of environmental problems like so-called global warming and overpopulation, as well as non-violence, is expanding into the U.S. public school system.
Seventeen states now mandate aspects of the humane education curriculum, and two charter schools - one already open in Harmony, Fla., and another planned near Sacramento, Calif. - are devoted entirely to teaching the curriculum.
The humane education curriculum's emphasis on animal rights and welfare has prompted the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to support a new taxpayer-funded Humane Education Learning Charter School, which received approval earlier this month in California's San Juan Unified School District.
The planned charter elementary school in California will encourage students to "examine [their] cultural assumptions regarding the inherent value of different species and nature" and help them to "explore [their] responsibility toward earth and other human and non-human beings," according to the California-based New World Vision Institute, one of the supporters of the school's curriculum.
Benford is eager to challenge the animal rights aspects of humane education.
"There is a difference between us and them. We do not believe that animals have the same rights as humans," Benford said.
OSERA's curriculum advocates for animal laboratory testing and opposes animal rights, placing it at odds with much of what humane education teaches.
"Kids don't understand when they are contacted by animal rights organizations such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) or any of the other groups, for every cause there is an effect," Benford said, referring to what she sees as the great benefits of animal biomedical research.
"They don't understand that if someone goes in and destroys a laboratory where maybe 20 years of research has been underway to cure, let's say, smallpox or anthrax or cancer, somebody may die for that," Benford added.
But PETA fired back and accused Benford's group of "brainwashing kids."
"It's indicative of how desperate the apologists of vivisection have become that they are stooping to this level," said Alka Chandna, manager of PETA's campaign to end animal experimentation.
"They know perfectly well that children have a natural empathy for animals, and they know perfectly well that our message resonates very well with children for that reason," Chandna told CNSNews.com. "These are all things that are motherhood issues, and children understand those things," she added.
Chandna maintains that the benefits of animal medical testing have been greatly exaggerated and accused OSERA of "adding lies to the curriculum and brainwashing kids and obfuscating facts by oversimplifying."
"We are not rats. We are not mice. We are not dogs. We are not cats. We are human beings. We are different," Chandna said.
But Benford disagreed with PETA's contention that animal medical research is unnecessary. "I am one of the oldest childhood cancer survivors, so I learned at a very early age that scientific research and animal research goes into affecting real-life changes," she said.
Benford cited her daughter's 4th grade class as an example of how today's elementary school kids have already been indoctrinated into the animal rights ideology.
When the 4th grade teacher told the class that animals were used in research to produce modern medications, many students in the classroom said, "that's terrible, that's awful," Benford recounted. When the teacher asked, "Can you come up with an alternative - [the students] said, 'yeah, test it on old people,'" Benford said.
The students' reply, Benford said, proves that they lack understanding of the issue. "I think a lot of times, kids are targeted by those [animal rights] groups because they don't have that awareness," she said.
New Science Curriculum Aims to Curb 'Animal Rights' Influence
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
October 28, 2003
(CNSNews.com) - A new science-based educational curriculum has been launched to help elementary and middle school students appreciate the role of science in their lives and to counter the animal rights-based curriculum known as humane education.
"Misinformation gets skewed into the spin of those types of [humane] curriculums, and all of a sudden, kids become zealots for a cause that they really don't completely understand, and they have never been given the whole picture," M. Sue Benford, executive director of the Ohio Scientific Education & Research Association (OSERA), told CNSNews.com.
OSERA is a member of the national group, States United for Biomedical Research, which currently has educational affiliates in 20 states.
Benford's group is introducing a science-based curriculum for 4th through 8th graders in 42 Ohio schools this fall. The curriculum, which introduces students to scientific topics such as animal laboratory testing, diseases, health, food safety and the development of vaccines.
"A lot of times, kids don't even think that science relates to them. If you ask them what subject in school has absolutely no connection to real life, many of them will say science," Benford said.
The new science-based curriculum comes at a time when "humane education," which advocates say includes compassion for animals, awareness of environmental problems like so-called global warming and overpopulation, as well as non-violence, is expanding into the U.S. public school system.
Seventeen states now mandate aspects of the humane education curriculum, and two charter schools - one already open in Harmony, Fla., and another planned near Sacramento, Calif. - are devoted entirely to teaching the curriculum.
The humane education curriculum's emphasis on animal rights and welfare has prompted the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to support a new taxpayer-funded Humane Education Learning Charter School, which received approval earlier this month in California's San Juan Unified School District.
The planned charter elementary school in California will encourage students to "examine [their] cultural assumptions regarding the inherent value of different species and nature" and help them to "explore [their] responsibility toward earth and other human and non-human beings," according to the California-based New World Vision Institute, one of the supporters of the school's curriculum.
Benford is eager to challenge the animal rights aspects of humane education.
"There is a difference between us and them. We do not believe that animals have the same rights as humans," Benford said.
OSERA's curriculum advocates for animal laboratory testing and opposes animal rights, placing it at odds with much of what humane education teaches.
"Kids don't understand when they are contacted by animal rights organizations such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) or any of the other groups, for every cause there is an effect," Benford said, referring to what she sees as the great benefits of animal biomedical research.
"They don't understand that if someone goes in and destroys a laboratory where maybe 20 years of research has been underway to cure, let's say, smallpox or anthrax or cancer, somebody may die for that," Benford added.
But PETA fired back and accused Benford's group of "brainwashing kids."
"It's indicative of how desperate the apologists of vivisection have become that they are stooping to this level," said Alka Chandna, manager of PETA's campaign to end animal experimentation.
"They know perfectly well that children have a natural empathy for animals, and they know perfectly well that our message resonates very well with children for that reason," Chandna told CNSNews.com. "These are all things that are motherhood issues, and children understand those things," she added.
Chandna maintains that the benefits of animal medical testing have been greatly exaggerated and accused OSERA of "adding lies to the curriculum and brainwashing kids and obfuscating facts by oversimplifying."
"We are not rats. We are not mice. We are not dogs. We are not cats. We are human beings. We are different," Chandna said.
But Benford disagreed with PETA's contention that animal medical research is unnecessary. "I am one of the oldest childhood cancer survivors, so I learned at a very early age that scientific research and animal research goes into affecting real-life changes," she said.
Benford cited her daughter's 4th grade class as an example of how today's elementary school kids have already been indoctrinated into the animal rights ideology.
When the 4th grade teacher told the class that animals were used in research to produce modern medications, many students in the classroom said, "that's terrible, that's awful," Benford recounted. When the teacher asked, "Can you come up with an alternative - [the students] said, 'yeah, test it on old people,'" Benford said.
The students' reply, Benford said, proves that they lack understanding of the issue. "I think a lot of times, kids are targeted by those [animal rights] groups because they don't have that awareness," she said.
