Hello, Reddit.

I am a Middle School teacher and sponsor an animal rights club for students. I was wondering how my students and I could help call attention to our cause in a public school setting and any ideas you might have. I appreciate your help and I thank you in advance!

  • Would your admin be open to you guys having a vegan bake sale or something like that? I think with the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act passing Senate, this is a good time to introduce kids to the idea that vegan nutrition is very accessible. Sometimes admin can be weird about that stuff though

    parent
  • parent

    Wow, that's such a great resource! Thanks for the help! :)

    parent root

  • Most minors aren't in control of what they consume. Maybe by the time they're 16 or older they will buy more of their own food and clothing and cook for themselves, but that's not going to be the case for an 11 or 12 year old.

    Your best bet is to put the idea in their mind that is possible to live without exploiting animals, and give them some tools to help them, and their families, explore that. Perhaps hand out fun plant based recipes to try. Perhaps fund animal welfare charity drives or organize some sort of volunteering effort at a local shelter or animal sanctuary. Maybe start a study club on animal ethology and general appreciation of wild ecosystems.

    I don't think shaming or confronting children is the best path, even if done by children towards other children. If they are not in a position to make progress towards what you are asking them to do, they'll just get frustrated and want to tune you out.

    parent
  • parent

  • Here are some ideas of things you could do:

    • Product taste tests - you and club members bring in samples of various vegan cheeses along with some crackers and then do a cheese sampling where you all taste the cheeses and write down notes about each one and rate them, then compile the ratings to see what the top 3 are. You can do this with lots of other vegan products like nondairy milks, ice creams, chick'n nugs etc. Maybe do it once a month for the whole year and then at the end of the year have a list of "XYZ high school ABC club favorite vegan foods" that you can publish in the school paper or print up and post on bulletin boards etc.
    • Coordinate with the debate club to discuss vegan-related issues. For example, "Should CAFOs be legal?" or "Is it time to end all fur farms?" or "Should circuses have animals?" If some of your club members like debating then they could debate but either way, the club could help do the research and coordinate some talking points for whoever takes the vegan side of the debate. And the club could help promote the actual debate so other students can come watch.
    • Raise money to give to a farmed animal sanctuary, animal shelter, or vegan nonprofit. This could be done via collecting cans and recycling or a craft sale. Or maybe host an animal-friendly movie screening and sell tickets for it to other students. Or just asking for donations.
    • You could do chalk-tavism. That's where you use sidewalk chalk to write pro-vegan messages all around the school and parking lot. There are lots of messages you could write out: "be kind, eat plants" "vegan for animals, the planet, and human health" "animals are friends not food"
    • Maybe coordinate with a biology or science club to learn about animal sentience. You could watch some films and read some studies.
    parent