I received an email from a student this weekend that questioned if our school will be more responsible with the care of goldfish at this year's Summer Blast Carnival in June.
We gave out goldfish to children at last year's Carnival as prizes. Apparently, this concerned student thought that it was a cruel and inhumane way to treat goldfish. Specifically, she cited that "fish are living, sentient creatures....and that it has been scientifically proven that they can feel pain in the same ways as humans. I see absolutely no reason that our students would need to be given a living creature in order to have fun. The thought that students take them home, put them in a lake or a river, flush them down the toilet, of put them in a bowl until they die makes me sick."
I shared her thoughts with some of my staff whose children received goldfish last year. Surprisingly, the fish are still alive on all counts!
I appreciate the young lady's concerns as our family has a horrible record of keeping our goldfish alive for any decent period of time.
That said....I will bring up this worry to our team as I do the majority of questions that I get from students, parents and/or community stakeholders.
Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your thoughts....How are your goldfish doing???
For me, it's not what she wrote as much as the fact that she wrote it. I'm encouraged to know that a student feels empowered enough to speak out when she sees something that she feels is not right. We need to nurture this in all of our kids; to care and then do something about it. By your description, she sounds intelligent and passionate...combine that with an open mind and those are the qualities that will change the world.
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