The “Blood and Guts” Class, Redux

Last September, I wrote about the "Blood and Guts" course pages on the website of the Governor’s School, a school for gifted students at Lynchburg College in Virginia. They showed the children being inappropriate, and posing in some rather disturbing ways with parts of the animal bodies that had dissected. Clearly it was a photo-argument for how dissection desensitizes kids to the suffering of the creatures they hack up. The website was taken down.

This year, we can actually stop the Blood and Guts course from occurring. It’s scheduled for July 1-July 28, and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has offered to assist with the purchase of computer-based learning alternatives, with a grant of up to $2,500.

Go to Dissection Alternatives for more on low-cost, high-compassion, no-suffering ways to learn about the innards of the creatures our kids pick apart unnecessarily.

And send an e-mail (or a letter, but mail it ASAP or even registered, certified, or FedEx to make an impression), or call the following people who are influential in the curriculum choices at the Governor’s School.

Principal Specialist, Governor’s Schools and Gifted Education:
Dr. Barbara McGonagill
Office of Middle and High School Instruction
Virginia Department of Education
P. O. Box 2120
Richmond, VA 23218-2120
Phone: 804-225-2884
E-mail: Barbara.McGonagill@doe.virginia.gov

Director of the 2007 Governor’s School for Math, Science, and Technology:
James Koger, Ph.D.
Lynchburg College
1501 Lakeside Drive
Lynchburg, VA 24501
Phone: 434-544-8628
E-mail: koger@lynchburg.edu

Superintendent of Public Instruction:
Billy K. Cannaday Jr.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Virginia Department of Education
P.O. Box 2120
Richmond, VA 23218-2120
Phone: 804-225-2023
E-mail: Billy.Cannaday@doe.virginia.gov

This is your chance to forever change the way Virginia’s best and brightest, many of whom will pursue careers in medicine, learn about learning, compassion, technology, and biology.