Antihunting Biases From Public School Teachers, Some teachers make it difficult for kids to talk/write about hunting Options

[Dr Dave Samuel View Member Profile]

Two days ago I read about a fourth grade teacher who, because of her antihunting biases, intimidated a fourth grader. During a free period snack time this Vermont boy was talking to his friend about the turkey he had just taken. The teacher covered her ears and mentioned something about how she did not want to hear about this "killing." There is more to this story, but you get the drift. This is not atypical. There are public school teachers (and Freshmen English college teachers) who know nothing about the values of hunting, have never been exposed to it, eat hamburgers without any thought as to how they got there, and expose their biases in such a way as to intimidate kids who hunt. It happens everywhere.

I have a web site (knowhunting.com) and apparently both high school and college students (especially those writing essays for Freshmen English) find their way there and email me for information on hunting. I get about one request every two weeks, and here is how most go. "My teacher has made several antihunting comments in class, so I've selected a pro-hunting topic for an essay, and would like any supportive information or data you have." Invariably I tell them that (1) they won't change the teachers mind, and (2) their grade on the essay may not be as good as the essay deserves, so think about writing on another topic. Indeed, I've had Freshmen college students tell me that they feel their essays on the values of hunting were downgraded because of the topic. I remember one such incident at my University where a student showed me a copy of her essay and the handwritten comments from the teacher in the margin. The comments were antihunting comments and had nothing to do with the writing style or organization of the essay. I remember one such comment in particular. The student noted that hunters generate over $450 million a year from excise taxes on hunting equipment and hunting license sales and that these funds pay for about three-fourths of the budgets for many state fish and wildlife agencies. The teacher commented that there was no way this was possible. The teacher basically said that the student had made up the information, but the student was correct, and the teacher an antihunter. Have any of you run into such a situation with your children? If so, I hope you did what the parents of the Vermont boy did. They pulled their son from the last 10 days of school and home schooled him, and then they complained loudly to the school board. A little negative publicity will do wonders for a teachers "education." A lot of negative publicity will do even more.