Resting With The Cats
It's been a good day here. I gave tests to all classes. The Anatomy kids are excited at the upcoming cat dissections. I am a little jaded and sad after seeing so many dead cats over the years but I know it is important to give them this experience. Many of them are going into the medical field and when they question me about dissecting cats I always ask them "Would you want someone operating on you who had only practiced on simulations?" They look sheepish and respond negatively so they know that there are aspects of real dissection that simply can't be duplicated by computer simulations. It still makes me very sad to know that so many cats were killed because people didn't want them. I wish they all had good homes but that isn't going to happen. The best I can do is to keep trying to find homes for as many local cats as possible and showing my students the value of learning body systems in our deceased cats. I never want them to lose sight of the fact that these were once living, feeling creatures who could have been great house pets like the nine cats I have here.
I am sitting here typing with our black kitten Ellen sitting on the arm of my chair with me petting her. It reminds me of the beauty and wonder that cats provide to my life daily. Later I will play with the other 8 cats and be thankful for their presence in my life.
Labels: cats, dissection, school, teaching
3 Comments:
Hi yer. Thanks for dropping by my blog and posting your comments. I didn't know reading a blog from a 52 year old biology teacher can be this interesting. Good day!
This is a really good perspective on cat dissection. I have to admit that it is the reason I didn't take Biology 2. I couldn't handle the mere thought, and still remember how appalled I was to have seen something like that set up in the Biology classroom at a school fair when I was about ten. Maybe that was when I started thinking it would be a good idea to become a sociologist...;-)
It can be a dilemma for a cat lover true, but what about dissection of a cadaver? We all love people, yet in medical schools they are used routinely. There just isn't a better substitute.
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