I opted out of a biology assignment once. I got a zero. So should students that opt out of

[tulipsandroses]

classes that deal with history or ethnicity. Just saw yet another video of an angry parent who wants his kid to opt out of having to take a class that discusses racism in an ethnic studies class.

I have a very irrational fear about worms. The biology assignment was to dig up worms and dissect them. Nope not doing it. When I told the professor, and asked to be excused from that assignment, he said sure, but you will get a failing grade for that assignment. I chose to get the 0 because of my phobia.

Schools should not cower to these bully parents. What's next? I don't want my kid to learn about The Holocaust? I don't want my kid to learn about DNA helix because well, GOD?
Sure go ahead and skip the class. Just be prepared for the consequences.

[Karma13612]

1. I opted out of a bio experiment

In college at SUNY (Publish or perish) Buffalo back in the early 70’s.

We were learning about anesthetics. We had to inject mice with an anesthetic and watch them burn their paws on hot metal while they were confined to small metal pans over bunsen burners.

It was pretty obvious they were going to burn their paws, just not feel the pain until the anesthetic wore off.

I took a zero for the lab and never looked back.

You can say many good and bad things about UB back then, but compassion and ethics were not among them. I know from 3 years of experience there as a student from ‘72 thru ‘75.

I understand where you are coming from as far as some parents complaints on subject matter being taught. But, at college, we give schools way too much autonomy. They seem to be able to set the rules and it’s hard to break thru that if you are a student, especially away from home.

[Phoenix61]

2. I refused to dissect a fetal pig in high-school biology.

The teacher ordered one each for all my classmates and let me do a report on genetics. When the fetal pigs came in they were all “why doesn’t she have to dissect one?” My teacher explained I had an alternative assignment. I think she let me do the report because she knew I’d take a zero otherwise.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. how on earth did their parents graduate from high school, and what was taught there ?

[Backseat Driver]

5. That's a big assumption that they did - speaking of education...

Mom dropped out in the 10th grade, always a SAH mom, ya think? Dad graduated HS and received Army education for Signal Corp in WWII (Phillipines/New Guinea); retired from a baby Bell, his only employer, as a Central Office long-distance routing analyst. DH's dad after Grade 9; trained as Navy electrician stationed at Pearl Harbor after the attack; retired as a metal stamping plant floor supervisor (his only post-war employer); his mom Grade 10 too; also a SAH. Neither women drove the single family car. Both families bought small homes post-war and never moved from that home.

Don't get me started on how this great plan for the future of their kids worked out... the parents we knew always seemed frozen in time...one out of the four kids from these families has a 4-year degree; two have associates; one has what then (after HS) amounted to a corporate vocational associate degree and lots of OJT experience; all drive cars. The grandkids all have 4-year degrees and all have had more than a single employer and are good drivers - the great-grandkid is good in 4th math and reads 2-3 years above his grade level but enjoys graphic novels? (maybe a creative type?)...so high hopes there if, collectively, we pry him from the iPad. I worry, though. He can't yet do life skills like ride a bike or swim or shop w/money...says he wants to be a paleontologist - we'll see should we live so long...hope's alive!

Oh, BTW, I was the HS Biology cutter of the frog; others on my team were too freaked out. Didn't get to do the fetal pig in HS; only got the eyeball, and actually handled some very old, very real, dusty human bone specimens in community college A&P class that they kept jumbled in a cardboard bo ?), the rest being molded castings in other modern material(s).

[orleans]

4. refused to dissect a frog in jr. high

i think it was 8th grade.
i figured if i ever grew up and was into that sort of thing (somewhere in the medical field) i could learn more about it then.
never had the desire, never needed to dissect anything that was once alive.

from what i recall, they threatened all kinds of shit if i didn't do it. turns out i liked my science class and did very well in it (other than on frog day). i passed the class and still graduated when 8th grade was over.

i would have loved to learn about racism in america. the best thing about my 8th grade history class was that we had a black teacher (and everyone wanted to get her for their history teacher). the textbook was the usual bullshit.