more on vegetarian toddler art

[Guest guest]

Thank you to everyone who wrote back about making squid prints ...

I thought I might just be entering a brave new world, very different

from my own preschool days, where things like printing with a dead

animal were normal....

Two interesting follow-ups -

The teachers were all very nice, of course, and said to let them

know of anything that bothered me ... which was nice ... and warned

me that in later preschool (preschool!!) they disect frogs.

Um.

I hated it when I did it much older, and now would raise he** to

keep my son from being required to participate in it when the

situation comes up if he's not homeschooled, etc. - but I wasn't

expecting that in PRESCHOOL. I appreciated the warning but I have to

say I just think that's odd.

Has anyone else heard of preschool disections???

 

Follow up number 2-

So, I have Max in a little toddler art class for 45 minutes once a

week, and they do neat age appropriate things like smearing the

paint on each other and walking in it and painting with various

materials .... all is going well...

UNTIL - I notice some art drying from last session and it includes a

fish print. So, I'm trying not to make any disturbance, and I

quietly ask the teacher if that is a project that this group would

be doing, and she says yes.

I say - could you let us know when? So maybe we can leave for that

part.

She says, sure, there will be lots of projects, he doesn't have to

do that one.

I say, could you maybe do it last, so Max won't have to be

confronted with the fish?

She says, looking at me oddly, you don't want him in the room with

it?

I start, um, well, we're vegetarian, and Max loves fish, and he

wants them to splish splash back into the water, and I think he's

too little to deal with...

She says OH my gosh, they aren't real fish!!! What kind of artist

do you think I am? I wouldn't kill something for art! Or use a

dead something! that's disrespectful to life in general!

 

So, what a relief ... even among non-veggies, folks, I think our

dead animal print feelings are the norm and this was just a bizarre

project that maybe 3 people didn't think too much about before they

started in.

But the frogs .... for 4 year olds .... that disturbs me to the

point of thinking there must be some serious philisophical diffences

between this preschool and our family ... but I hope this kind of

thing isn't the norm -

 

Elizabeth

[Guest guest]

, " elizabethmaxsmom "

<elizabethmaxsmom> wrote:

> Thank you to everyone who wrote back about making squid prints ...

> I thought I might just be entering a brave new world, very different

> from my own preschool days, where things like printing with a dead

> animal were normal....

 

Nope, not normal at all. No dead animal art at my kids' school. Also,

I've never heard of their dissecting anything. Yuck. I'm sure I would

have heard back from the kids if anything like that had happened. I

think the art teacher's response is much more the norm, even for

non-vegetarians.

 

Maybe you need to investigate a new preschool? Are you particularly

attached to this one for any reason?

 

Be well, Hadass in Winnipeg, Ima to Rafi, 7 y/o, Ari, 4 y/o, and

Shira, 9 months.