My Google Reader snared an article that caught my eye today. An art teacher by the name of Dave Warwak was fired from Fox River Grove Middle School. Apparently he was teaching the students about being kind to animals using a:
“collective art lesson in which a number of students and teachers created and cared for their own companion animal made out of commercially-available marshmallow “Peeps”chick-shape candy. As with school exercises in which students care for “baby” eggs, people at the school personalized their Peeps, spoke to them, and treated them as if they were subjects of a life that were deserving of protection. At the end of the lesson, however, Warwak surprised everyone by collecting the marshmallow chicks for a diorama school art exhibit he then created in which the
Peeps candies were represented as locked behind zoo cages, hung on the wall as trophy game heads, squashed as road kill, boiled and fried in pots and pans, and enclosed between slices of bread as sandwiches”
Principal Tim Mahaffey accused Warwak of abandoning the curriculum, stating:
“[Warwak] turn[ed] his classroom into a forum on veganism. The problem was when it turned into a PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] advertisement and it was against the school lunch program.”
I found this statement interesting, because to me it seems like a red flag of endangerment to freedom of speech. Since when is it not allowed to discuss alternatives to what schools happen to serve because they went with the lowest bidder? Also, it is easy to relate something to PETA when you want to make people feel alienated: I’m vegan and I’m alienated by PETA because of their extreme views and actions. Using that stigma against a teacher trying to teach children about a vegan diet seems biased. Besides, it is very rare that this lifestyle is portrayed in a positive light in the first place.
After these allegations, Warwak replied that part of teaching art to students is to get them to think about life and to have them connect their creativity up to the social issues that they care very deeply about. He then turned his sights on asking for the removal of the National Dairy Council’s “Got Milk?” and other promotional posters which adorned the lunch room walls, and when the school’s cafeteria manager refused to take them down, Warwak and his students posted their own vegan posters satirizing the issue. He also began a more public campaign to raise consciousness about the quality of school lunches being fed at the school, which resulted in his dismissal.
I found this to be very telling:
Like all public elementary, middle and high schools, Fox River Grove is only eligible for National School Lunch Program reimbursements if it promotes consumption of dairy products, including by putting up life-sized celebrity milk endorsement posters. These posters are sent unsolicited to schools by the National Dairy Council.
Richard Kahn, PhD accurately sums up the perverseness of this bribery:
“Not only at Fox River Grove Middle School but also in thousands of schools across the country, corporate agribusiness has run amok in the attempt to utilize public education as a place to establish the naturalization of commercial meat and dairy as lifelong eating habits, to generate increased sales, to subsidize the food industry against decreased producer prices, as well as to funnel below-health standards food not fit for public sale. Warwak was correct to demand the riddance of the Dairy Council’s posters as they had in fact already been targeted for removal from approximately 105,000 public schools by the Federal Trade Commission.”
So, let me get this straight. They fire a teacher for allegedly turning his classroom into a “PETA advertisement”, because it goes against all of the pro-dairy life-sized celebrity milk endorsement posters and other advertisements in the lunchroom. It is outrageous that the USDA practically bribes schools by offering aid for school lunch IF the schools advertise for the Dairy Council. Until I started writing this blog, I never realized how political school lunch really is. I find it very alarming.
Schoolteacher Fired for Recommending Students Eat Plant-Based Diet
by David Gutierrez
October 29, 2008
Full Article
Towards an Animal Standpoint: Vegan Education and the Epistemology of Ignorance
by Richard Kahn, PhD
October, 2008
Full Article
Wow, this is a huge issue.
My first thought when reading this article was, this does seem to be an issue regarding free speech (I’m well versed–check out my free speech blog!). I understand that the school district does not want teachers to stand on a soap box and try to sway an opinion over its students, but let me throw a couple of scenarios out there.
This school district doesn’t want the teacher to promote veganism, because it is his lifestyle and they don’t want him to influence students. Fair. But how many school districts do you think oppose teachers who recycle in the classroom? None.
I think that was a great lesson, because it showed students the emotional reasons for having a vegan diet. Not only is it a healthy alternative, but a huge issue for many vegetarians and vegans is the treatment of animals. The teacher allowed his students to get “attached” to their animals, and then showed the realistic outcomes for these birds.
I had never realized how political food in school is, either. I find it odd that they are trying to get kids to consume more dairy. From my knowledge, many dairy products are high in fat (ie. cheese) and aren’t the most healthy of foods that we should be promoting for kids.
It’s also crazy how we get pictures of celebrities to convince our kids to drink milk. I think I would die of shock if I ever saw an advertisement with Christina Aguilera talking about how much she loves broccoli. Why don’t celebrities try to endorse these kinds of healthy options for kids?
I know those decisions are based on the advertisement budget for the FDA, but shouldn’t celebrities who are involved in PETA in particular be more concerned about helping students make healthy choices as well?
By: laurensibula on November 24, 2008
at 6:06 am
First off let me just say that I love your title for the blog. I wonder if vegetarians do indeed eat animal crackers?! [haha] I found this article to be particularly interesting. It attacted my attention in the first place because of the pink peeps [which happen to be my favorite Easter candy.] While I agree that this teachers freedom of speech was somewhat violated in this scenario. I also feel that posting animal cruelty posters all over the school is somewhat of a red flag. To me he was sort of asking to get fired for something that he felt was worthy of the cause. Yes, he should feel free to express his view within reason. I felt that the whole getting the students attached to the peeps and then exploiting them on these “ads” was borderline out of line.
Like I previously stated in a political blog dealing with a teacher having a political runners sign in their yard, I feel that a teacher is free to express his/her views outside of the classroom. But inside the school walls I think that it all has to be within reason. Maybe explaining the concept behind this “experiment” or project with the Peeps and then talking about the pros and cons of veganism would have been better fit for the topic. Instead of exploiting his views all across the school and somewhat “dogging” on these FDA advertisements.
Health issues are becoming very popular and argued throughout the school systems these days. I heard that my high school has completely gotten rid of the soda machines in our school and changed to strictly water and juice. I guess I didn’t think that anyone abused their soda privilages. I had no idea how huge this lunch and health choice option was becoming in our school systems.
By: dibbleje on December 1, 2008
at 6:32 am
Okay, right off the bat I am going to make it clear that, like you, I am not unbiased on this issue. I live on a dairy farm. As regards to this post, I have to say I disagree with you on many levels. First off, that assignment that the teacher did with the Peeps contained very little educational value. I laughed when I read it. This is an example of a teacher using his classroom as a forum to teach his students his beliefs. That was not an art lesson. That was a vegan lesson. As regards the school lunch programs and the oh-so-offensive milk posters, the teacher sounds like he was getting a little bit out of line. If the school felt that he was not doing a good job, then it is perfectly okay for them to fire him. This is not an issue of free speech. A teacher using a classroom or school hallways as a platform for his beliefs is wrong.
Finally, dairy products are not some kind of unhealthy junk food. Milk has a lot of nutritional value. In my opinion, and the opinion of many others, growing children should drink milk. For this reason, I really see no problem with having milk advertisements in the lunch room. I realize that some vegans have opposing points of view, but that is their belief and not something that everyone else needs to be forced to abide by.
By: lizlongcore on December 2, 2008
at 3:25 pm
Liz,
I do agree that the peeps lesson may not have been the most educational, it reminds me a bit of carrying around sacks of flour pretending they were babies in health class. However, I do think that understanding where meat comes from is a a realistic and important thing for kids to learn about. Not even because of animal cruelty, but also because of health issues due to poor standards and practices within the industry. As far as the “oh-so-offensive” milk posters; do you think it is wrong for a teacher to share his beliefs and yet right for the USDA to help promote the dairy industry within schools? Yes, milk does have nutritional value, but it also can have a lot of contaminants, pus, in some cases (I don’t know anything about your dairy farm in particular) animals are put at risk, and it seems unnecessary to me to even drink milk. No other animal on the planet drinks milk past infancy – the time when their body grows the most. It is possible to get that nutrition elsewhere. Yes, this is my opinion, and I realize that I am in the minority. I think this is why it is important to help students see other alternatives besides mainstream points of view. You seem to be concerned about vegans “forcing” their point of view on people, and this is why I don’t like PETA; it alienates people and gives them false impressions about vegans. You are your own person and you are ultimately in control of yourself. Veganism is not exactly a popular point of view, so I don’t see why you are so concerned about them forcing their views on you; drink all the milk you can handle. That’s your choice, this is mine. This is all about keeping an open mind.
By: bostonk on December 3, 2008
at 5:29 pm