The other day a relative in our family WhatsApp group said there's been an uproar recently in her son's school. She said the new Food Tech teacher is a vegan and has been teaching the 15 years olds how to cook vegetables. So far so good.
The kids are also supposed to learn how to fillet a fish and debreast a chicken. In my opinion, these are vital skills for adulthood and an all rounded diet. The problem is that the new vegan teacher has refused to teach this and the parents are not happy at all. Furthermore, they have already paid for all the ingredients the kids are supposed to be using, but so far they have just been cooking vegetables and lentils. My relative is in the parents WhatsApp group so gets all the updates, and said the parents have called for a meeting with the school about this. Luckily, her son doesn't do Food Tech at school so it doesn't effect him.
This led me to think about teacher's right to not teach topics that go against their religion, beliefs, principles or morals. Do they have this right as a teacher to not teach others, and uphold their beliefs instead? And where does that leave students' right to learn? Which takes priority?
I don't have more information about this whole issue other than the WhatsApp message, but can't help to think where the problem lies. The school? The teacher? Or the parents?
Did the school know that teacher is a vegan when they employed him/her? If they did, did they specifically ask the teacher if they were willing to teach skills involving non vegan ingredients? Or did they assume that the teacher would teach everything in the syllabus. Not a reasonable assumption to make to be honest, afterall that is the teacher's responsibility.
If the teacher withheld this fact during the interview believing it was irrelevant to a teaching position, does this give grounds for dismissal now? That fact alone, wouldn't, just like you can't sack someone based on their gender, age, race or sexuality. But if a teacher couldn't, or refused to fulfill 100% of the teaching duties because of these factors, then it would be a different story. If the school decided to dismiss him/her, could they be sued for unfair dismissal? Or, if the teacher is only willing to teach part of the syllabus, is he/her willing to be employed and paid part time?
Or perhaps... are the parents over reacting? Should they be more considerate and respect the teacher's belief? Should they sacrifice their child's learning opportunity?
Personally, I have nothing against vegans, I know many on Hive here are vegans and that's a personal choice. I have dined with vegans and I don't mind the occasional change in diet. Some vegans may also raise their kids as vegans, again that's their choice as a parent, until the child is old enough to make their own decision. These are personal and a parent's choice, but does a vegan teacher have this right to extend their choice to other peoples children through omission of responsibility?
I am neither a parent nor a vegan, so my views are pretty clear... a teacher has a responsibility to teach according to the school syllabus, and the student has the right (and obligation 😉) to learn. Period.
What's your view to all this? I'd love to hear what you think from a vegan or parent pov, or perhaps better still, as both.