. . . in time gone by.

Now I'm questioning whether I'm meant to teach in public schools.

I'll fight Eurocentrism until the day I die (if I ever forget, please slap me upside the head until I remember).
I'll fight racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, ageism, and a lot of other -isms.

I don't believe that Whites are better than any other cultural group (even if this assumption benefits me, since I'm White and have seen the power of White privilege).  I don't even really believe in the construct of race.  I don't believe that men are better than women (which is not to say that I believe they are the same).  I also don't believe that the amount of money one has makes one a better or worse person.

One -ism I don't believe to be unreasonable is anthropocentrism.  Anthropocentrism is a basic belief that humans come first in the hierarchy of living things and that they are more important than other species.

This has come up for me because I'm reading a dissertation about urban life with livestock (related to the goat farm project), and while I find the research methods to be satisfactory and the general findings to be consistent with what I know about urban life, I can't accept the author's underlying assumption that people who do not consider their livestock at least as important as a pet, or preferably as much a part of the family as a child, are not living at the highest moral level.  (She hasn't said this overtly, but I feel the weight of her judgment staring up at me from the page.)

Of course, I believe in protecting endangered species, in treating animals well, in using resources wisely.  But I also believe that priorities are necessary, and I've seen too many children without childhoods to put an animal before them, or even equal to them.  If killing an animal helps students at an inner city school to understand how they're part of the food web, I'm ok with that.  If keeping chickens for their eggs makes a profit to continue running a worthwhile program, fine by me.  If not taking a rabbit to the vet makes it possible to pay the electric bill, go ahead.

Maybe I'm unenlightened . . . but I'm not ignorant.  I'd heard the arguments before, seen the pictures, met the activists.  I just don't buy it.  But I'd love to hear your thoughts.

For a condensed proposal about the Detroit goat farm idea, check out:

http://greeneffect.nationalgeographic.com/idea/2733/?sort=title

We're applying for a $20,000 grant through National Geographic to get the project off the ground.  Your comments and ratings will help get us the exposure we need!