I Was a Teacher. Chick-Hatching Projects Still Haunt Me.
Published by Minneapolis Star Tribune
Thousands of chicks are living in elementary school classrooms across the United States. Each spring, teachers incubate eggs under warming lamps until they hatch as students observe the baby birds to learn about the life cycle. As a former kindergarten teacher, I have seen the unexpected animal cruelty and miseducation implicit in this seemingly joyful classroom tradition.
During my time teaching, in a nearby classroom, a student playing with a chick accidentally squeezed the bird so hard that its intestines were expelled through its bottom. As the traumatized bird stumbled around, its intestines dragged behind.
A parent happened to enter the classroom and offered to help. Not knowing what else to do, the teacher entrusted the bird to the man, and he left the school with the chick in hand. The next day, someone asked the man what he had done with the bird. He said — in front of children — that he threw it into a dumpster.
