Challenging lesson ideas
Vegetarianism can be a controversial subject. Use the following issues
as lesson ideas for older students to explore a side of vegetarianism
they may not have previously considered. |
Help! My new boy/girlfriend is a veggie…
This opens up many ideas to explore such as:
• Pretending not to eat meat to impress the new boy/girlfriend
• Giving up meat but really wanting to eat it or getting caught eating
a burger
• Wanting to dump your boy/girl friend because they won’t
go veggie. Or even dumping your girlfriend/boyfriend because they are
a veggie
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Why can’t my family be like everyone else’s?
The pleasures and pains of having parents that don’t always fit in is
a topic most people can relate to, but what if your mum and dad are veggie?
What problems can this cause? What are the benefits?
• Explore ideas relating to friends visiting or eating out
• Hoping that when you bring a friend home to dinner, for once, they won’t
talk about being a vegetarian
• Parents that insist you should be a veggie
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Is variety the spice of life?
Each year a new diet seems to take the nation by storm. Atkins, F-Plan, Cabbage
Diet, slimming pills, Weight Watchers, detox, etc all go through waves of popularity.
Combine this with individual preferences for food such as meat eater, vegetarian,
vegan, and the fun begins.
• Sheer confusion over which diet to follow
• Arguments over the dinner table, as each member of the family enjoys
a different diet |
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The perspective of a farm animal
Imagine what it would be like if you were a farmed animal.
• How would you feel about the conditions you live in?
• Would you know what’s going to happen to you or not?
• Might you wonder where your fellow animals that leave go to?
• How would you feel if your babies were taken away?
• What would it be like to be transported to an abattoir and killed?
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Why are some animals eaten and others not?
• It may seem strange but animals are killed before we get to
see them as bacon, burgers, sausages or kebabs
• Do you think people really think of meat in supermarkets as animals?
Why do you think this is?
• Looking at your pet dog or cat, do you ever wonder why we eat some animals
and not others?
Working in an abattoir
People choose different careers for all sorts of different reasons. But what
if your job involved killing animals? Some people who work in abattoirs find
the job too difficult and leave. Others leave and then become vegetarians because
of what they’ve seen and had to do, whereas others adjust and have long
and successful careers.
• Coming to terms with the fact you kill animals for a living
• The grim humour used to lighten the working day
• Looking at the butchers shop and realising that you killed the animals
in the window
• Seeing animals in the field realising fully the fate that awaits them.
• Wondering why some animals are eaten and others not?
• Dating a vegetarian but hiding what you do for a living |
For lesson ideas suitable for all students, click
here
For free Vegetarian Society educational resources, please click here
For useful websites related to poetry and animal welfare issues, please
click here
return to National Poetry Day index
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