Teaching a Non-Biased Unit on Vegetarianism

Health instruction typically isn’t controversial. Discussions of sex education are the most common exception. More conventional units on fitness, safety, and overall wellness tend to pass without incident. Similarly, nutrition lessons rarely create any tumult. A unit that examines vegetarianism might inspire contention not usually seen during a health class. This unrest can be avoided, or it can be embraced.

Vegetarianism might emerge as a topic in several classes, most notably science. Being a lifestyle choice, health class would be the most natural setting for discussions of diet. Where controversy might develop is in how vegetarianism is presented to students. If it appears to be a suggestion, even a recommendation, students might balk. An instructor can be careful to present the subject matter as a choice some people make. Along with this can be several explanations for why these people make that choice. Potential resistance can be avoided through judicious presentation. However, an instructor might choose to go a different route.

A unit on vegetarianism can be a potential opportunity for critical thinking of the highest order. The unit can become a curriculum-spanning exercise, melding health, science, English language arts, and even social studies. Instead of simply presenting vegetarianism as a diet choice, the instructor might present it as an umbrella topic that encompasses several issues. Students can explore these issues, thus gaining a thorough exposure to and (one would hope) understanding of the dynamics of vegetarianism. From there, a critical analysis of the issues can commence. Students can evaluate issues related to vegetarianism and generate arguments of their own in response to these issues. The unit moves from being about diet to being about creating arguments with adequate support.

This type of unit might proceed as follows. Through some set induction questions, the instructor determines what the class knows about vegetarianism. The instructor follows by defining the practice and its variants. As a whole group, the class outlines possible reasons for selecting this diet. These are matched with reasons the instructor has preselected. Some reasons are likely to include health benefits, sensitivity to the environment, and perhaps most prominently, personal ethics. Next, the class can identify some arguments against a vegetarian diet, such as possible malnutrition, the economic effects on farmers, or personal choice. These points for and against vegetarianism then become issues to be explored further and incorporated into student projects about vegetarianism. Students might simply write persuasive essays or speeches, but they might also more develop research projects and reports in the form of papers, presentations, or videos. The projects might be best handled individually, as students might have strong opinions about the subject matter. Of course, the subject matter lends well to possible organized debates. A bold instructor might even have students adopt the opposite side of their actual beliefs as a way to further challenge their ability to form arguments.

Presenting the unit this way gives it a different life. No longer is it just exposure to a particular diet choice and its justifications. It becomes a challenging critical thinking piece. The unit remains non-biased in that students are deciding for themselves how to accept or reject vegetarianism. Pushing for such critical examination might go beyond the scope of what some health courses demand, but the opportunity exists for such exploration. A unit like this might work best in home schooling or other non-traditional arrangements in which the greatest flexibility for cross-curricular instruction is present.

A few considerations should be made before approaching the unit this way. To begin, a class might include some students who are passionate about their own vegetarianism. Any type of debate an instructor oversees could have the potential to become heated. Additionally, some students follow such a diet for religious reasons rather than reasons related to ethics or health. Discussions of counter-arguments to vegetarianism could be taken as an attack on their beliefs, depending on how these counter-arguments are presented. Even when an instructor presents the content without bias, some sensitivity still is needed regarding how students might receive the content.

Whether such a unit is attempted in a health class, a science class, or any other class, an examination of vegetarianism can lead to a multifaceted educational experience. Beyond a solely informative exercise, it can be a chance for students to use a variety of critical thinking skills. An instructor might elect to take advantage of the inherent prospect of controversy in the subject matter. While avoiding presenting with any bias, the instructor can give students an opportunity to form or solidify their positions about a lifestyle choice that works for some, but not for others.

Written by Jeff Hartman