A rant about the agriculture teacher at my school.

I just need to get this off my back.
So the agriculture teacher at my school, EVERY SINGLE YEAR, finds a way to mention that vegetarianism stunts growth.
First of all, this is so disgustingly inacurrate I'm amazed doesn't get called out on it more often. But anyways.
It just so happens that I'm short. REALLY short. Both of my parents are short, my grandma never reached five feet, and I've been the shortest kid in all of my classes since I started school.
But, invariably, whenever they get out of our lovely ag class, I'll have a friend come up to me going "Hey Rachel! I know why you're so short! We learned all about it in ag today!"
I mean really now.
There's at least five other perfectly normal height vegetarians at my school, one really tall one.
How do the people buy this?

The teacher's even admitted that the reason she hates all vegetarians is because she had a crush on one in highschool and he was shorter than her so she couldn't date him.

How does she get away with this?

I'm just so annoyed by all of it.

Mon, 10/20/2008 - 12:45am — Rrevolting

Submitted by Rrevolting on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:29am.

Wow you guys, thanks so much for all the feedback.
On one hand its kind of awkward because I don't take her classes, and my sister was one of her favorite students, so it would be sort of weird for me to start something with her.
I'm also afraid that if I do anything about it, it'll just be showing that I actually care what she says. I don't want to come off as the butthurt little vegetarian. :/
But then on the other hand, I feel like she really SHOULD be called out on her misinformation.
I might ask my friend to help me out with this,
I don't know the whole story about what happened but I do know that after a talk about vegetarianism my friend refused to enter her classroom again, purposely failing the class.

Submitted by chunky_chicken on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:37am.

if you don't take her classes than i can see how it would be weird to just walk up to her and give her a piece. and going to admin wouldn't work as you haven't heard it first hand, and it wasn't a dis on u personaly. so i guess i would just talk to the people that have made comments to u and straighten them out. if they in turn take that info back to class it is their choice. and yer "butthurt" comment made me giggle.

Submitted by Rrevolting on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:54am.

well my friend took her classes, so I could get her to help. Or I'll just wait to see if she talks about it again this year, and if she does I could say something. She's mentioned it the past two years I've been at this school, so itwouldn't surprise me.
But I might be seeing that teacher next weekend anyways (long, frustrating story) so I can mention it then too.

Submitted by chunky_chicken on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 10:20am.

as a meat eater all my life i have yet to reach 5'. so yah, it has nothing to do with what u eat. my sister a bigger omni than i is only 4'10". me i'm 4'11". so what a load of crap!

Submitted by animalia_libero on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 8:19am.

I wish I lived near you. I am 5'10" tall and about 165 lbs and VEGAN. I'd love to walk up to her and stare her down about vegetarians having stunted growth.

Feel free to pass on my info to her if you wish.

Overall though, this is high school, right? Unfortunately, you can't believe much of anything they teach you there.

Honestly, if it were me, I think I would take her to the side and tell her that it's not only inaccurate, but it's insulting that she would use her own personal issues to attack a group of people. Tell her you are considering going to the administrators, but that you wanted to speak to her- woman to woman- first. She may respect that... or maybe not.

But, just hang in there overall. Once you leave you get to get a more realistic education in college. Even then, do some cross-referencing though ;-)

************************************
"Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty."
-Stanislaw J. Lee

Submitted by adam_antichrist on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 5:57am.

Have you thought about approaching the administrators?
I'm pretty sure teachers are not allowed to purposefully teach things that aren't true. If this teacher is spouting that stuff, what scientific information does she have access to which backs it up? What nutrients are vegetarians deficient in which cause stunted growth? Why do all the relevant health authorities state that it is totally ok to raise kids as vegetarian? What incentives is she receiving as an authority figure over children to mislead them? If she claims to have something, you need her to provide the name of the scientific journal, the names of the authors who wrote it, the publication date and issue of said journal. I'd put her right on the spot by demanding that she reveal to you any and all information she has on the subject.

This amounts to discrimination, even if she makes these statements in jest. I'd be going through it like a bad curry. I'd shame the shit out of her by demanding that she make a public apology and that the school act to improve their record regarding discrimination against their own student's lifestyle choices. I mean you could really have some fun with this. And if the school's answer is not satisfactory, go over their heads. In my experience teachers always tried to shame and ridicule valid points kids had because they knew that 9 out of 10 times the kid will back down, not having the skills or confidence to go on with it. But if you yell loud enough, they'll quake in fear. You don't have to go this far, but there's really nothing stopping you (except perhaps common sense).

But you're young so you can get away with making a scene! I'd kill to be in your shoes right now LOL ;-)

use less everything!

Submitted by lauren ikon on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 1:46am.

i'm one of the taller ones in my family, out of the females, that is. they're shorties.
<3&(A)

Submitted by tmar on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 1:40am.

Ha Ha.... I am the only Veg in my fam and the shortest.... :) 5'5" and my little sis is 6 ft. I think even my youngest cousins who are like 14 are taller than me. It's all just silly don't bother getting annoyed by it!

XO-tmar