An Illinois teacher has been fired by the local school board for promoting veganism, and while I’m impressed by Dave Warwak’s enthusiasm (he gave his students copies of The Food Revolution and said he wouldn’t go to work unless the cafeteria adopted an all vegan menu), I can kind of see the board’s side on this one. It’s too bad, because Warwak had a chance to make some meaningful changes, both in school policies and in his students’ lives. This isn’t some rogue element fresh to the school; Warwak taught art there for eight years (he became vegan in January). It’s unfortunate that he chose to take such a militant stance towards his employers and insist that they make a change that he himself took 43 years to make.
If you’re a teacher in the school system, some productive and not-going-to-get-you-fired actions you could take include volunteering to supervise a veg or AR student group (titling it something other than “animal rights” will probably help dodge parents’ objections), working with the cafeteria to introduce vegan options alongside the existing menu and then softly promoting them to your classes, and living a good example through a healthy lifestyle and positive attitude that your fellow teachers will aspire to – converting a colleague is going to cause geometric growth in your outreach, and it’ll also provide you with some allies if the political environment over your actions ever gets a little hot.
Comments on this entry are closed.