Young Person Refuses to Call Animals “Things” In School–And Other Stories
The Hartford Courant (Connecticut, US) has recently run a story about a second-grader’s stand on behalf of animals:
Recently, my son Noah ran afoul of his school’s curriculum when he refused to classify an animal as a “thing” during a grammar lesson.
Thing, as in “person, place or thing,” a time-worn method of identifying whether something is a noun. Noah, being 7 and an animal lover, would not back down and “correct” his classification of animals, which he felt should be regarded as “beings,” and he was less than fully cordial when his teacher gently insisted he change his response. Noah felt that, rather than “persons, places and things,” the classification system should be “Beings, Places and Things.”
As Noah’s mother, it is my responsibility to instill in Noah the proper habit of cordiality and respect when disagreeing with others. I encouraged him to show greater respect for his teacher in the style of his response, but I also told him I was proud of him for speaking up on behalf of beings who cannot speak up on behalf of themselves.
Language is powerful. I am raising Noah with an abolitionist ethic. He is conscious of the vulnerability experienced by any being on this earth who is regarded as a thing, as an “it,” rather than as a sacred companion in our midst.
Via the most recent issue of The VegE News (published by the Toronto Vegetarian Society).
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