The KInd Life Community Forum

I told my teacher Ava can decorate a brownie egg or papier machet balloon. Here is her response...

My apologies for the delayed response. I really had to do a lot of thinking about this situation. I understand and respect your choice to be vegan. When it comes down to what a child is consuming we (myself and the school) try to accommodate the child's needs. We try to notify you for special meals and store separate snacks to help Ava feel included. You are very passionate about your lifestyle. I am very passionate about teaching and providing hands on experiences for all of my students. I cannot create a separate lesson or activity for Ava nor will I tell her that she cannot participate in an activity. I feel that it would be unethical and require me to go against my teaching philosophy. Our class will continue to explore eggs until next Thursday. We will also be coloring eggs next Wednesday. The entire preschool will be going on an Easter egg hunt next Thursday. Our special Easter snack will be an Easter egg, carrots and grapes.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

I'm totally floored by this. We are ethical vegans which means it extends beyond diet. It is like making a Muslim kid play with spam. It is a Christian preschool, but what if this were an extension of our Christian beliefs? I'm not Christian but ethical eating is very Biblical. I don't understand what the big deal is. I am willing to be with her during these activities so she doesn't have to set it up, which I will tell her in my response. Has anyone else dealt with a difficult teacher? Its making me not want to send my daughter to that school next year, and I'm sure the principal would not approve of this teacher's response to me. They are also doing an Easter egg hunt which I am trying to figure out what to do about.

Anneka,

First I would like to say good luck to you with this situation. I would honestly go straight to the principal with this response. The teacher is going against your sincerely held beliefs. I would go in with a well laid out plan on how to provide Ava with a suitable alternative that will not take away from the teacher's lesson plans. If they refuse to allow you to raise your daughter the way you see fit I would not send her there next year. Situations like this is exactly why we ended up homeschooling our children. I couldn't handle teacher's like that. As far as the Easter Egg hunt well personally I would just keep her home that day so she isn't excluded from the activity. Maybe have a mother and daughter day. I don't know how old she is and what she understands about your vegan lifestyle but I would tell my kids why we didn't participate in the egg hunt and why we are doing our alternative instead. One thing me and my girls do is when their friends would do something that related to a holiday or activity that was not kind to animals we would go volunteer at the local animal shelter or make animal toys to donate or maybe animal biscuits to donate. That way we were helping animals instead of harming them.

Good Luck
Me'Lin