By Isabel Ariño Laviña
INTRODUCTION
During the course we have been taking these days, we have been able to verify that there are more than a few of us teachers involved in this difficult task of bringing animal sensitivity to the classrooms and to our students.
We have participated in these sessions with the aim of learning about experiences and resources that we can use when planning activities in our areas.
Desde mi experiencia profesional, dispongo de un margen amplio para trabajar este tema. Desde el Departamento de Orientación, me coordino con los tutores, para valorar la importancia de sensibilizar a nuestros alumnos en este tema. Al mismo tiempo, he organizado actividades puntuales a demanda del profesorado y de algunos padres, ante hechos lamentables que se han producido en el entorno en que se encuentra el Instituto, en que se han producido casos de maltrato animal (gatos y palomos).
I am a teacher of Ethics and Civics in 4th year of ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education), and of Citizenship and Human Rights in 3rd year of ESO. From this perspective, I have ample opportunity to address the topic of animal sentience as part of the curriculum. The practical exercise I am sending you falls within the 4th year ESO curriculum.
I thought it would be more enriching to send you the assignment I completed last year. That way, I can provide a final evaluation of the work.
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH to the ACTIVITY
- ACTIVITY NAME: “THE PEACEFUL KINGDOM”
- Justification
We are in a small secondary school in a rural area where the students have known each other their whole lives. They meet in groups and often participate in various leisure activities. Among other things, they often chase the village cats, throw stones at pigeons, and so on. All of these activities take place outside of school hours; therefore, our interventions cannot be accusatory but rather preventative.
Just as we cover Human Rights in Ethics and dedicate significant time to the Gender Violence Observatory, I felt it necessary to dedicate three sessions to the topic of Animal Sensitivity. I was taking a risk, given that three of my students owned livestock. At the initial parents' meeting (in October), I explained that one of the topics their children would be studying at the high school was sensitivity towards their surroundings (the environment, animals, etc.).
- Goals:
- To inform students about other realities they are unaware of
- To raise students' awareness of what an animal sanctuary is.
- To inform them about the goals set at the animal sanctuary
- To raise students' awareness of the reality faced today by the animals they eat.
- Promoting empathy towards certain groups of animals
- To value, from an emotional point of view, the experience that the people participating in the video bring us.
- Collaborate in the creation of a mural that will be formed by the individual participation of each student.
- Target students:
Students in 4th year of ESO (15-16 years old). Can be adapted to other ages.
- Activity development:
The activity will be presented to the students, justifying the need to assess the level of sensitivity that animals in our environment, in particular, and in the world in general, possess. The topic will be introduced through a brainstorming session. Can animals feel? Do they have a nervous system? Can they be sad or happy? Does dying hurt them?… The teacher should lead a discussion in which they must refrain from expressing their own opinions and remain as objective as possible.
During the end of this session and most of the next, the video "The Peaceful Kingdom" will be shown. It is recommended that you do not interrupt at any time and observe the students' reactions (these must be noted). During this activity, I noticed that two students were crying. One of them is from a family with a cattle farm.
Once the students have watched the video, the script for the assignment, “Script for the student”, is distributed.
When the teacher receives the work, they will select one sentence from each student. The work is returned to them (corrected with a grade based on objective criteria), with the selected sentence underlined in a different color. The teacher then explains the reason for choosing that particular sentence to each student individually. If they agree, their contribution to the mural will be a transcription of this sentence with their signature. It's incredible to discover how little they know about themselves when they say, "Did I write that?"
I'm sending you some photos of the final result of this exercise, although the quality isn't very good. Therefore, I'm transcribing some of the contributions verbatim:
They wanted to create two murals with different colors. The titles are:
“Animal sensitivity”
“One animal, one feeling”
Some examples are:
“Animals should be respected more.”
“They can’t report it, can’t speak out. It makes me very sad.”
“I take care of animals because they have feelings.”
“It’s a concept for a better world”
“Animals, like people, have feelings.”
“It has helped me understand how animals feel.”
“They are living beings like us. They also feel and suffer.”
"Animals also have feelings, they suffer and experience fear."
“When you see men crying, you can understand them.”
"I think the activists who save these animals are heroes."
“They are taken from the exploitative centers where we are used to seeing them as objects of consumption.”
“I will never condone this inhumane violence against them.”
- Timing:
Three 50-minute sessions
CONCLUSIONS AND ASSESSMENT
I recommend this activity with students of this age and with whom you have some prior knowledge. It can be enriching, but also very frustrating for the teacher if the students don't cooperate or even make fun of the animals shown, or the farmer who gets emotional and cries.
During this course, I will not carry out this practice due to the profile of these students who are more immature and do not consider animals to be important enough to respect them.
With these students I'm referring to, I conducted an animal awareness workshop last year due to their habit of throwing stones at pigeons, which I mentioned earlier. I've included a scan of the news article I sent to the Huesca newspaper as a result of the workshop.