Humane Education Commons^™

Reverence For Life: An Ethic For High School Biology Curricula, George K. Russell

Education Collection

Ethical and pedagogical arguments are presented against the use of animals by high school students in experiments causing pain/suffering/death of the animal. No justification is seen for such experimentation when perfectly valid alternatives, using noninvasive techniques, exist or could be developed. An important concern is the emotional and psychological growth of young people. An overall objective of high school biology curricula must be to assist students in making viable connections with living biological processes and the natural world.

Humaneness Supersedes Curiosity, F. Barbara Orlans

Education Collection

Ethical considerations need to be addressed with respect to educational use of animals. Society extends greater latitude in what is permissible to do to an animal in the name of science to a professional research worker than to a high school student. A balance needs to be made of the significance of the expected experimental results, on the one hand, which the ethical costs, (in terms of pain or death to the animal), on the other. A reasonable boundary can be drawn, based on ethical as well as on practical considerations, to exclude invasive procedures on vertebrate animals in high …

Student (And Animal) Welfare, Leonard M. Krause

Education Collection

Adolescents exhibit affection for numerous vertebrates and appear to sympathize and to identify with traumas these animals experience. Therapeutic benefits students attach to nurturing and breeding certain vertebrates are evident; destruction of these same creatures produces clearly negative attitudes by students toward the science course and the instructor. "Case histories" documented while teaching high school students working with vertebrates are reviewed and are related to specific techniques (e.g., pithing) utilized by numerous instructors. Motivation, increased attention span, sustained interest, involvement with community issues and other desirable educational goals are demonstrated to be resultants of student involvement with living vertebrates studied …

Objectives Of Animal Use In Biology Courses, William V. Mayer

Education Collection

To confine discussion of educational use of animals to experimentation is to focus on only part of the animal use problem. To focus on use of animals in the classroom solely is to negate the value of field and community resource areas such as zoos, animal parks, nature trails, etc. The primary objective in dealing with living organisms is to inculcate a respect for all life. Objectives that focus on use of living animals for experimental purposes can, at best, be secondary and may in many cases be contrived. An understanding of animal life requirements and animal contributions is an …

The Challenge And Motivation Of Students Through Live Animal Projects, Thurman S. Grafton

Education Collection

The subject of use of live animals by secondary schools either in classroom work or science fairs is a very controversial and often emotional issue. The author emphasizes the dedication to humane treatment of animals while at the same time explaining the process by which rules have been formulated to provide for the appropriate use of live animals. The difference between permission and mandate is clarified for the purpose of explaining the need to provide for the more effective challenge and motivation of the high achiever while still allowing for more modest undertakings by the average student The perils of …

Science Youth Activities And Animal Experimentation, E. G. Sherburne Jr.

Education Collection

Science youth activities (extracurricular science activities) involve millions of young people at the elementary and secondary school level. Such activities are popular with young people and with teachers because they offer values different from those provided by classroom work and the required laboratory. National science youth activity programs include science fairs and the International Science and Engineering Fair, the Science Talent Search, and a number of other programs. For activities involving research, animals have been increasingly used because of the increased sophistication of the students doing the work. While some projects using vertebrates may be done poorly, it is suggested …

Understanding And Attitudes Derived From The Use Of Animals In Schools, Peter J. Kelly

Education Collection

A general review of the variety of activities involving the direct use of animals which are undertaken in secondary schools. An assessment is made of their value (positive and negative) in terms of knowledge and attitudes (including ethics) which are, or might be, derived from them. Alternative methods also are reviewed with an assessment of their value in relation to live animal studies.

High School Science Fairs: Evaluation Of Live Animal Experimentation--The Canadian Experience, Harry C. Rowsell

Education Collection

When the Canadian Council on Animal Care was established in 1968, the Council, together with representatives from the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association in concert with the Youth Science Foundation, recognized the importance of well-conceived science fair projects involving live animals. It was recognized as well that poor science encouraged poor attitudes toward the animals involved, as well as a misunderstanding of scientific investigation. Numerous schemes were tried in an effort to ensure development of proper scientific investigational attitudes as well as a respect for living things. These will be discussed, outlining where such schemes failed.

In May, 1975, Regulations for …

Fundamental Criteria For Determining The Educational Value Of Live Animal Experimentation In High School Science Fairs, David H. Neil

Education Collection

The author contends that great and very detailed attention to one minuscule facet of experimental animal biology, particularly if it requires the skilled and uniform alteration of a significant number of animals, is of no real educational value to a high school student. This type of work, the necessity for it and the full understanding of its significance to the furtherance of human understanding must be the province only of those who are intellectually prepared. The suggestion is made that projects, which develop a more complete understanding of common and profoundly important elements in life (as we know it), should …

Special Report On The Use Of Animals In School Science Projects

Special Reports

When 28 students are rewarded in national competition for projects that caused pain to animals, it is clear that humanitarians still have a great deal of work ahead of them.

Special Report On Teaching Children To Be Kind

Special Reports

While recognizing the need to continue alleviating suffering wherever it exists, The Humane Society has taken the offensive to teach children and youth the appropriateness and value of kindness and respect for all living creatures. HSUS's experience has demonstrated that attitudes of adults are extremely difficult to change. It is the children and youth of the nation that offer the greatest potential for having positive, unprejudiced attitudes. And it is here that HSUS has chosen to direct a large part of its efforts and resources.

The Misuse Of Animals In The Science Classroom, Richard K. Morris

Education Collection

At The HSUS Conference held in Washington in 1961, Dr. James T. Mehorter of the University of Vermont declared " ... our historic failure in humane education revolves about two points: (a) a philosophy, and (b) a psychology." Seven years later, as moderator of a panel discussion on humane education, I pointed out that there was a need for research leading to a defensible philosophy of humane education and research into the psychological effects on young people of violence on television, gun clubs in the schools, and of elementary and secondary school experiments on living animals. This "historic failure" is …

Humane Education Programs For Youth (Panel Discussion), Virgil S. Hollis, Sherwood Norman, Jean Mcclure Kelty

Education Collection

Part I - Dr. Virgil S. Hollis

Developing the number of school administrators who are increasingly becoming interested in humaneness and the humane society members who are interested in education, I think, means that all of us must keep close touch with each other although we know very little of each other's field. This exposure to you and your programs in meetings such as this will surely result in a united attack on a mutual problem We need your help. And you need our help. You need help from the group that I represent in education because the many programs …

The National Humane Education Center And The Welfare Of Animals, Mel L. Morse

Education Collection

The role of all humane organizations is the prevention of cruelty and, in order to do this, we must be prepared to show a better way. We cannot stand back saying "no" or "you can't do that" unless we are prepared to show why. We must understand that cruelty is not always a sadistic act and one whose perpetrator needs the attention of a psychiatrist. I am sure that there are many cruelty cases that should be handled in such a manner, but not very many of them get or deserve this distinction. Usually we move to correct the problem …

Humane Education Of The Next Generation Of Americans, Stuart Westerlund

Education Collection

In the process of education, three major aspects stand out sharply: philosophy, psychology, and evaluation. It is through philosophy of education that we establish goals and objectives. In other words, where are we going? What do we want? What is really important? Without a philosophy we wander aimlessly in the vast desert known as "no man's land." Psychology speaks of methodology, the means whereby we might achieve our goals; it is the instrument by which we hope to achieve our objectives. Without a methodology we are like a ship without a rudder. We may know where we want to go, …

Humane Education Programs For Local Societies, Frank J. Mcmahon

Education Collection

Although definitely I am not an educator, I believe that I still may be able to report usefully this afternoon some of what is being done in the field of humane education by some of our best local humane societies.

In the years that I have worked in and for The HSUS I have visited several hundred local humane societies-big and little, good and not so good, new and old, rich and poor, in all parts of the country. I have spent many days on analysis of the philosophy, policies, equipment, programs and personnel of those societies.

When I visit …