Utah school gives kids ‘disgusting’ insects to eat as a part of a climate assignment on cows killing the planet. Read to know more.
All about the buggy climate assignment:
A Utah Mibble School in the Nebo school district gave their sixth graders “disgusting” insects to eat. According to a mom who spoke to Fox News, it was part of an English assignment on climate change claiming this was the only way to save the environment from cows “killing the world”. Amanda Wright, the mother of a student also told the reporters she believed children were being “indoctrinated into a dark climate change religion”. Additionally, she challenged Alison Hansen, the school’s principal as her daughter found the climate assignment uncomfortable.
“Middle schoolers loved the ‘ewww’ factor, many of them gave bugs a try (and even a few staff members!). Many thanks to our English teachers for creating fun and engaging lessons,” stated Spring Canyon Middle school. According to the school district the bugs were purchased from a commercial site and deemed “safe for consumption”.
The climate assignment also asked the students to write an argumentative essay, not permitting students to disagree. The only acceptable answer was humans eating insects for proteins instead of cows that are destroying the earth’s Ozone layer. Additionally, students also received extra credit as an incentive for eating insects. Amanda Wright complained to the administration and recorded the meeting with them.
More on the issue
According to a recording by Wright’s daughter, when she asked why they could not state their opinion, “Because we don’t have any evidence to support it. It’s kind of weird that I gave you a topic where there is only one right answer. We don’t want to eat bugs and it’s gross. But should we be eating bugs? Yeah, because we’re killing the world by raising cows and animals. So we need to, not get rid of cows, but like, try to balance our diet so that not so much of our land is being used to raise cows, cause it’s killing the Ozone layer,” stated the teacher.
“You don’t have any evidence to support it. There’s only one right answer to this essay. And it’s that Americans should be eating bugs. Everyone in the world is eating them, it’s healthy for the environment and there’s just, there’s only one right answer,” added the teacher. “My daughter wasn’t given the option to give an argument,” stated Wright. The teacher, Kim Cutler is heard saying “all the evidence has suggested, that we probably should be eating bugs. It’s good for the environment, etc. But I didn’t know that that was an offensive topic to indicate.”
Utah school district addresses the issue
The school district released an official statement addressing the climate assignment. “On the questions about extra credit: Yes, the teacher said sure you can have bonus points, almost as an afterthought. There are multiple opportunities for extra credit or bonus points in this class,” read the statement. “When the teacher realized there was a concern, the student was offered another topic of the student’s choice. Remember this is also a particular assignment about finding facts versus opinions to support writing an argumentative essay. Our district, schools, and teachers do encourage parents and students to come to us with their concerns. We want to continue to be partners in the education of children,” it added.
