http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Jeff%20Cohen/2012_05_03_JC%2010503%20Dissection.mp3
Not every school student wants to dissect a fetal pig in biology class. And now, as WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports, the Connecticut legislature is considering a law that would mandate that those students have another option.
State Representative Diana Urban says students who are opposed to dissecting animals in class should have a choice to learn the same material another way -- say, using a computer simulation. And she says that the choice should be binding on local school districts. So she's proposed a bill to do just that.
I asked Urban if this sort of thing needed a new state law.
"Well, you know, in essence, it really doesn't. Each particular school district can allow this to happen. But there seems to be significant pushback in some districts."
Urban isn't alone on the issue. The Humane Society of the United States told the general assembly that students can be so turned off by the assignment that they may be unable to focus. Some, it says, leave the study of science altogether.
The bill is now pending on the house floor.
For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.
