Opinion: Dissection Has Lost Its Significance Opinión: La disección Ha Perdido Su Significado
Photo Credit: Flickr user spDuchamp
Sheep would feel a lot better about being picked apart by students if it were for a clearly defined educational cause.
In Human Biology we were forced to dissect a sheep brain. I say, “forced” because we were not given the option of opting out with an essay explaining why it was contrary to our personal beliefs, as you can in AP Bio.
Of course we had done a human brain coloring sheet prior to the dissection, but I wasn’t the only student feeling unprepared as I found myself looking down at a grayish mass on dissection day.
The dissection consisted of cutting the brain in half and locating its various parts. This process was made somewhat difficult by the fact that the class’s knowledge of brain anatomy extended barely further than the difference between the brain stem and the cerebrum. After “locating” all of the required parts, we threw the brains away in the trashcan and that was that.
I wholeheartedly agree with the use of dissection for learning. The Human Biology sheep brain dissection was not learning. After finishing, we were told that the main reason for the dissection was to observe the proportional differences between human brains (as viewed on our trusty coloring sheets) and the sheep brains we were dissecting. To do this, could we just have looked at a picture of a sheep brain next to a human brain? Probably.
In this respect, “interactive” teaching has gone too far. Dissection is an important tool for medical research and learning, but it should not be taken as lightly as it is now. Regardless of whether the animal is already dead, a brain is a brain is a brain. A sheep’s body parts should not be mutilated just because they are available.
Not only are these animals raised for slaughter, killed, and eaten, but their brains are also sold online for $10.20 to classes who cut them in half and stare meaninglessly at them for half an hour before throwing them in the trashcan along with last period’s gum .
En Biología Humana hemos sido obligados a diseccionar un cerebro de una oveja. Digo “obligados” porque no nos permitieron optar por escribir un ensayo explicando porque la disección era contraria a nuestras creencias persónales, como se puede en Biología AP.
Ciertamente hemos hecho una hoja de colorear del cerebro humano antes de la disección, pero no ero la única estudiante que no se sentía preparado cuando me encontré mirando una mancha grisácea el día de la disección.
La disección consistía en cortar el cerebro a mitad y ubicar sus varias partes. Ese proceso fue un poco dificultado porque el conocimiento de la clase de la anatomía cerebral apenas extendía justo a la diferencia entre el cerebro y el tronco encefálico. Después de “ubicar” todas las partes requisitas, tiramos los cerebros a la basura y esa fue la fin de la disección. .
Yo estoy incondicionalmente de acuerdo con el uso de la disección para la enseñanza. La disección del cerebro de oveja en Biología Humana no era enseñanza. Después de terminar, nos dijeron que habíamos hecho la disección para observar la diferencia proporcional entre el cerebro y el tronco encefálico humano (según nuestras fieles hojas de colorear) y los de oveja que estábamos diseccionando. ¿Habremos podrido observar esta diferencia en unas imágenes de los cerebros? Probablemente.
En este respecto, la enseñanza interactiva se ha convertido a un exceso. La disección es útil para la investigación médica y la enseñanza, pero no debe ser asumida tan casualmente como ahora es. No importa si el animal ya era muerto, un cerebro es un cerebro es un cerebro. Los órganos de las ovejas no deben de ser mutilados solamente porque son fáciles de conseguir.
Estos animales no sólo son elevados para matanza, matados, y comidos, pero también sus cerebros se venden en la red para $10.20 a unas clases que los cortan en mitad y los miran sin entendimiento para media hora antes de tirarlos a la basura con el chicle del ultimo periodo.
Puede ser que las ovejas se sintieran mejor de ser cortadas en pedazos por estudiantes si fuera para un claro motivo educacional.
Sera, I’m surprised you were not given an opt-out option for the brain dissection. The Californian Education code states:
32255.1. (a) any pupil with a moral objection to dissecting …animals,… shall notify his or her
teacher…
(b) If the pupil chooses to refrain from participation ..and if the teacher believes that an adequate alternative education project is possible, the teacher may work with the pupil to develop and agree upon an alternate education project…
With out being aggressive, perhaps talk to your teacher about that. It’s the law that s/he provides you an alternative.
However, I do feel Americans are becoming increasingly detached from reality. It’s important to correct the gross misconceptions about science many people have due to cartoons etc. Cartoons are great, just not when people believe a human heart actually looks like a valentine, or that brains are bright pink and look like scrambled spaghetti. Dissections offer us the opportunity to realize sheep are not just piles of fluff, but have insides. They can also give us an awe of how a bunch of cells and mushy gray matter can produce thought and become a learning entity.
I do agree though, that we should be respectful of the animals/body parts that we dissect.
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