I only eat roadkill.... You guys OK with that?
I certainly didn't abuse or hurt these animals. I feel compassion for them and empathize that they were killed. I just don't want their meat to go to waste.

I liked this response best:

Pschopathy from wikipidia- is a personality disorder whose hallmark is a lack of empathy. Pschopaths, or sociopaths, are extremely self centered and, lacking compassion, conscience or empathy they take what they want for their own pleasure without feelings of remorse or guilt. Oblivious to the pain or suffering they cause their victims, sociopaths
view their self gratification as their right. Pschopaths display
signs of the disorder early in life, often in the form of cruelty to animals.

Pschopathy from wikipidia- is a personality disorder whose hallmark is a lack of empathy. Pschopaths, or sociopaths, are extremely self centered and, lacking compassion, conscience or empathy they take what they want for their own pleasure without feelings of remorse or guilt. Oblivious to the pain or suffering they cause their victims, sociopaths
view their self gratification as their right. Pschopaths display
signs of the disorder early in life, often in the form of cruelty to animals.

In Genesis Adam and Eve lived in the garden of eden and ate plants and fruits and lived in harmony with all of Gods creatures. I dont remember the part where Adam kills, slaughters and eats some of Gods creatures.

Actually the lettuce licker enviro police at WWS and other groups want all cattle off the ranges and into cages...

Animal_Voices:
It seems your still suffering from sheeple syndrome, Dear. Your just following to the beat of a different drummer.

Human's are actually omnivores (I'm sure, since your a teacher, you know what the word means). Our teeth are equally suited to steak or potatoes.

And I guess you've never seen a house cat (or wolf, for that matter) kill by instinct (sport?, fun?) and not eat that kill.

Do you teach creation or evolution in your school?

"We've gotten used to idea", said Dies.

That pretty much says it all. Most of the kids natural inclinication was to decline participation, but they were taught otherwise. This project was intented to desensitize kids to killing. Its all about learned behavior.

There is probably a way to consume enough protein without the large scale suffering inflicted upon living creatures. I am personally not familiar with the particulars but I am abhorred the way animals are made to suffer.

If these educators really want to teach, they should offer a tour through a factory farm. In fact,it should be a mandatory course in high school curriculam. It should be broadcast on TV so everyone knows where there meat comes from. Then maybe we as country can figure out a way to provide ourselves with nutrition without inflicting horrible cruelty. We went to the moon and beyond, we should be able to take this next step and evolve into better beings.

You out of state chicken lovers probably have no idea that most of these kids have been hunting or fishing or live with livestock that they eat all the time anyway. I guess you would call child services if you saw an 11 year old gutting his first deer out and eating the beating heart raw.

Instead of killing animals, they should teach children the truth that humans are not physically meant to be eating animals. And there is no such thing as humane killing.

I applaud you kids! when i was in High school i did a demo on dressing out a meat rabbit for my Ag class i was told by the school board that i had to kill and behead the rabbit before it came on school grounds, I with my teacher and mother both thought this was stupied how was i suppose to teach anything if i couldnt go from start to finish.. there response was well if it dosnt have a head then the kids mind you were HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS wont think of it as a animal. plus all but 1 of us were farm kids and she refused to watch. people are getting to dissconected to the realitys of life we need more programs like this!

I just got an idea for a new restaurant. It will be sort of like those steak houses where you get to grill your own steak. We can have patrons slaughter their own animal for dinner!

Educational and appetizing!

14,000 chickens are killed per minute in North America.

I do not see how this experience could be negative for the children/students. I find it ignorant that people do not realize that their protein food sources mostly come from living, breathing animals.
Typically, the average American is so far removed from their food source that they have no idea how cruel the industry has become. Neither does the average American even care about how mistreated animals are in massed producing feed lots or the pain the animals feel in their cruel deaths.
I believe the closer we are to our food source, the less likely we will be to over eat and to waste our food.
I applaud the Community School for such a forward thinking project that puts children in the very real arena of providing for oneself and to see the entire process from raising an animal, killing it, cleaning and butchering it, and preparing and eating the animal.
These children may well become advocates for better treatment of animals and encourage the change that is needed within the over mass produced industry.
Learning is always a good thing.

What the C.S. did is NOTHING compared to this annual animal sacrifice: www.youtube.com . I think it has something to do with the chicken dying for your sins. Sick. Can't criticize that, though, as it would be "antisemitic."

Very hypocritical to if any of you eat chicken. I am fairly sure a lot of the anti-slaughter people eat chicken and other meats.

I have a question for all of you guys who think this was terrible especially Miriam Jones. If you where presented with this complete unit and participated in all activites, do you still think it would be as horrible as you think it is?

I must say as a student of this project that you people do not understand what we went through and the only way to understand that this project was good is to do it yourself. We got our parents permission and I encourage other projects to take on this challenge as well. Go TCS

I wonder why the school is teaching killing rather than compassion, not to mention a healthy sustainable, eco-friendly vegan lifestyle.

People are really missing the point: How do we get our food? How does is begin and end up on our table? The Community School students answered that in a very deep way, and I am sure they have a better understanding of the reality of that than most of us posting letters.

Im my hometown where I went to school we had the FFA and 4-H and these were clubs in school where we raised farm animals start to finish with all the gross parts included. These kids voluntarily with their parents support took part in this enterprise. I believe they should get the opportunity to see what really happens to the food we eat. We can't all be vegetarians or vegans folks. You goodie goodie's in New York and Virginia that are better than the rest of us because you never hurt A fly are probably all wearing A leather coat this winter or leather shoes or A down coat or A fur hat. Come on you hypocritical do gooders. How do you know plants don't have feelings too? Maybe secretly that tofu you are eating has been tortured and twisted and pressed and all the while agonizing for your pleasure and satisfaction. This is A small town in the west and we have livestock in town with the people. Are allowed to have some chickens for eggs or meat. not just pets. Oh that brings up another issue. How about "kidnapping", your pets and holding them hostage instead of letting them go free into the wild like they were meant to be.

If God didn't want us to eat chickens...
he wouldn't have made them out of meat.

While this article is almost impossibly horrifying to read, from the text describing the murder of the chickens to the smiling faces of the children who are altering their dead bodies, there is really nothing new here.

Lesson plans such as these have been around for a very long time; and while they are dolled up in lots of different outfits, the supposed purpose of all of them is exactly the same: to Teach Children About The Reality Of Life.

Teachers have their students hatch chicks from eggs to Teach Children About The Reality Of Life. Teachers imprison guinea pigs and birds in cages in their rooms to Teach Children About The Reality Of Life. Teachers ask children to cut up the dead bodies of frogs, rabbits, worms, and other creatures to -- you got it -- Teach Children About the Reality of Life.

Beyond the horror of it all, the hypocrisy is almost suffocating, on two levels.

First, there are plenty of realities of life that teachers do their best to keep out of their classrooms, everything from drug dealing and sexual abuse to oppression and discrimination. The thought that teachers would embrace these realities, not only bringing them into their classrooms but glorifying them is incomprehensible, isn't it? Yet they will use that justification to force-breed, murder, and consume animals. Interesting.

The fact is that teachers have no real interest in teaching about the Realities of Life: only those that involve the torture and murder of non-human animals.

Second, these teachers never EVER introduce into these lessons anything like a balanced view of "reality." No vegans are brought into the classroom to talk about how healthy we are, what good foods we eat, and how we don't have to crush other creatures underfoot just to enjoy our lives. No images of wild chickens, enjoying their lives without human intervention, are shown. No: only the reality that insists that humans enslave, torture, and murder other animals is presented.

These teachers are like the Creationists who insist that their warped ideas of reality be taught in the classroom as fact while evolution is pushed to the side. They have no real interest in teaching the truth; rather, they wish to enforce their own narrow view of "reality."

And what is this reality? It is the reality that says humans have the right to do whatever the hell they want to anyone and everyone else on the planet. And they want their students to grow up believing the same thing.

Of course, teachers like this have been in existence forever. They are the ones who teach our children that Christopher Columbus was a good guy, instead of the profit-seeking explorer he truly was -- the one who enslaved native Caribbeans and killed their children. They are the ones who teach our children that all of the good literature was written by dead white guys. They are the ones who teach our children to learn to live by the bell and obey their bosses, right or wrong.

So it should come as no surprise that they are teaching our children that it is right, and always will be right, to consider the creatures of the world as ours to do with as we please, whether that means raping them (also called "breeding") or cutting their throats so we can chow down on their wings.

Congratulations, Community School students. You are getting the same education that children have received for hundreds of years. I only hope that one day, you can see past your teachers' lies and learn that humans are no better than anyone else.

Yes, chickens and other animals endure terrible suffering and misery in animal-food production operations, but the idea that suffering and death should be literally inflicted on animals in the classroom in order to "teach" students about these miseries is pedagogically and ethically unsound. (And I speak as a former classroom teacher and juvenile probation officer of many years.)

Imagine proposing that to teach students - young teenagers in middle school - about, say, the suffering and death endured by soldiers and civilians in war, to get the students out of their "comfort zones," actual micro-wars ought to be staged in the classroom.

Teachers teach students geography and anthropology without literally importing the landscapes and cultures in question. Should teachers conduct literal environmental despoliation in order to "teach" students about the effects of destructive environmental practices? How can students learn the true reality of child abuse or spousal abuse or drunk driving or drug addiction or rape unless they actually inflict these abuses in the classroom?

No, in the case of this slaughter exercise - setting up children against helpless animals including their betrayal of the birds who trusted and had no defense against those who raised them, then turned against them - something sordid is going on for which "teaching" is being used as an excuse. Again the question is, where are the parents? Where is the conscience of this community?

Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns

Those who are shocked and disgusted by this project either are vegan or have no idea how meat gets to the store. I commend the Community School for this lesson on the reality of meat. If you really want to see what is "shocking" and "disgusting" please view this video on how egg laying chickens are bred and treated as well as what happens to the rejects: www.youtube.com . This is some of the reality behind cheap food in the supermarket. Would you like your eggs fried or scrambled?

This may have taught the children a lesson about where their food comes from, but asking them to complete the killing of an animal (who apparantly was not stunned and felt the pain of the knife blade) as a class project goes beyond all good taste and academic sensibility. What academic standard or curricular goal is this addressing? This project could have been done in many other, and more humane, ways. The only ray of light I saw here were the students who refused to take part and the fact that they saw how factory farming is inherently wrong. As an educator I am disappointed that this is allowed to take place under the "guise" of learning or higher-order thinking.

Teachers and a school system encouraging 8th-grade students to make killing devices (killing cones) and use knives to cut the throats of sentient animals - and make no mistake: chickens and all birds are as sentient and conscious as mammals - is grossly, culpably cruel and irresponsible.

This is an animal abuse issue and a child abuse issue, and will be pursued as such. The one ray of light is the students who had the moral courage and sensitivity to say No to this destructive project cloaked as "education." Where are the parents?

Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns

I am utterly and completely shocked by this article and all involved. The educators who promoted this, the parents who allowed it, the children who carried it out, and the community that celebrated.
I mourn for the chickens, and for all of you as well. And for a society that condones this kind of education for our young people.

DISGUSTING!