By Judith Andrés
The following activity is designed for 4th year ESO students in the subject of Ethical-Civic Education, and its objectives are the following:
- To understand speciesism as a form of discrimination and to encourage personal reflection on its motives and legitimacy.
- To promote critical thinking and reasoned argumentation, as well as the ability to listen and defend one's own arguments.
- Promote teamwork.
CONTENTS:
Groups of four people will be formed and each group will be given a copy of Neil Gaiman's comic "Babycakes".
Each group should read the comic carefully and write a short summary.
In addition, they must create two lists:
– With the reasons why the use of babies is considered legitimate in the comic.
– With the ways in which they are used.
Finally, they should discuss as a group whether they think these reasons legitimize the use of babies for these functions, and why.
Consider which animal species you know are used for these same purposes and what reasons are given for doing so. Do we find it legitimate, is it ethical, and why? The group's conclusions should also be written down.
Choose a spokesperson from each group and share the reflections of each small group with the whole class.
The teacher's role will be to facilitate and regulate group discussions, avoiding influencing responses. The session will conclude with a brief explanation of speciesism, a form of discrimination.
EVALUATION CRITERIA:a partir de la puesta en común en grupo clase y del trabajo escrito de cada grupo se valorará la capacidad de comprensión y síntesis del documento, así como la capacidad de reflexión y pensamiento crítico expresado durante el debate y la capacidad de escucha y de ofrecer argumentos razonados sobre el tema planteado.
RESOURCES: una copia del comic Babycakes por grupo.
USE: es recomendable realizar esta actividad después de haber explicado otras formas de discriminación, como el racismo o el sexismo.