A program for children overcomes detachment from other living beings

Bexell, Sarah M.

Jarrett, Olga S.

Ping, Xu

Xi, Feng Rui

English

WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)

WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository Winter 2009 Fostering Humane Attitudes Toward Animals : An Educational Camp Experience in China Sarah M. Bexell Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, sarah.bexell@gmail.com Olga S. Jarrett Georgia State University Xu Ping Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding Feng Rui Xi Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/humeccur  Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Humane Education Commons, and the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons Recommended Citation Bexell, S. M., Jarrett, O. S., Ping, X., & Xi, F. R. (2009). Fostering humane attitudes toward animals: an educational camp experience in China. Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, 25(4), 25-27. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact wbisr-info@wellbeingintl.org. Fostering Humane AttitudesToward AnimalsAn Educational Camp Experience in ChinaSarah M. Bexell, Olga S. Jarrett, Xu Ping, and Feng Rui XiOn an evening out with friends, a girl decides itwould be neat to have one of the lovely bunniesbeing sold on the street in a tiny pink cage as apet. She hands the salesman the purchase price, andas she and her friends stroll away they swing the tinybunny in its cage and admire the bunny’s beautifulfur. That night she places the bunny next to her bedwith a small leaf of lettuce and no water. She talksand coos to the bunny as she falls asleep, and in herown way she loves the bunny. After two weeks of nowater, random amounts of lettuce with minimal nu-tritional value, and declining amounts of attention,the young rabbit’s body finally gives out and thebunny is finally at peace.Walking home from school a group of boys ob-serve a man tossing a puppy into the air repeatedly,laughing and showing off to all around him. Some-times he does not catch the puppy and the dog fallsto the ground and yelps. No one yells at the man tostop or tries to help the puppy.At a zoo a mother throws stones at the already tor-mented tiger to get him to move for her four-year-oldchild.The above observations are from China, wheresuch behavior is commonplace and socially accepted(see Song 2004). Animal abuse is hardly unique toChina, of course. Think only of the animals that suf-fer in United States in rodeos, circuses, and experi-mental researcher labs, to say nothing of the billionswho don’t even have space to move in factory farms.But China also presents unique conservation prob-lems. Especially critical is the staggering loss of na-tive wildlife (Elvin 2004). In addition, efforts by localanimal protectors to change cultural attitudes areA program for childrenovercomes detachment fromother living beings.SARAH M. BEXELL is the Director of Conservation Educationand Communications at the Chengdu Research Base ofGiant Panda Breeding, Sichuan Province, China.OLGA S. JARRETT is an associate professor of early childhoodeducation at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia.XU PING is the Manager of Conservation Education at theChengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, SichuanProvince, China.FENG RUI XI is the Conservation Education ProgramManager at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant PandaBreeding, Sichuan Province, China.Note. This article summarizes parts of the first author’s doctoraldissertation, “Effect of a Wildlife Conservation Camp Experience inChina on Student Knowledge of Animals, Care, Propensity forEnvironmental Stewardship, and Compassionate Behavior towardAnimals.” (Georgia State University, 2006).hindered by the progressive one-child-per-familylaw. Youngsters are growing up without siblingsfrom whom they can learn skills such as teamwork,helpfulness, and kindness, so educational programswill have to be more intensive and widespread tohave an effect.I became aware of the need for educational pro-grams while working with Zoo Atlanta on long-termgiant panda projects in Chengdu, China. I began byassisting in research on the behavior of giant pandas, aspecies threatened with extinction. Within fivemonths of working with my Chinese colleagues, I wasinvited to assist in the development of education de-partments and programs. All of our programs weredesigned to help young people develop humane atti-tudes and behavior toward all animals and nature;however, one program stood out as truly effective.A Promising Educational ProgramThis program consisted of five-day camp experi-ences developed for children ages 6-12. The programwas designed to take children along what we called a“continuum of care.” Students first met small ani-mals (rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, parakeets, andtortoises) as individuals (and not merely members of aspecies) and were allowed to recognize them as indi-viduals with personalities and feelings similar toours. They also met exotic captive animals (includinggiant pandas, red pandas, zebras, golden monkeys,giraffes, and lemurs) as individuals.Children were soon given responsibilities for thecare of animals. During this process, students werealso actively encouraged to “put themselves in theshoes” (paws, claws, and hooves) of individual ani-mals and think about how each was feeling. Wehoped that the experiences would help the childrenbegin to care about the environment that their newanimal friends depend on.Finally, we hoped students would care enoughabout animals and their living space (for example,home environments, captive situations, and naturalhabitats) to change their own personal behavior andcare for and protect animals after the camp. We alsoempowered the students to talk with their friendsand family about the proper treatment of animalsand the environment. We knew this would be hardfor them in a culture in which positive attitudes to-ward animals are often thought to be soft or silly. An-imal emotions and feelings are not generally per-ceived or accepted.Educational experiences during the camp in-cluded, in addition to information on caring for ani-mals, conversations with conservation experts, in-formation on animal feelings and animal minds, andthe provision of knowledge and skills to enable effec-tive communication to others about animals, theirwelfare, and conservation.We felt a camp experience and setting was impor-tant for our goals to be achieved. A camp, in whichyoungsters stayed five days and four nights, wouldprovide extended contact time between the studentsand the animals, and extended time with positiverole models, as well as peers. It also would providetime for students to acquire a depth of knowledgeand skills. Lastly, we believed that time spent in thenatural world (camping in tents and exploring na-ture were curricular components) was also impor-tant for developing a humane conservation ethic (e.g., Louv 2005). A total of 60 children, who stayed attwo zoological locations in Chengdu, participated inthe program .Evaluation of the Camp ExperienceWe believed it was essential to evaluate the effec-tiveness of the camp experience as fully and rigor-ously as possible. Too often, this component is omit-ted from children’s nature programs. Without pro-gram evaluation, we cannot truthfully state that weare achieving our conservation and humane educa-tion goals.26 ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social JusticeWe developed a mix of structured, unstructured,and observational methods to evaluate the camp ex-perience. These methods included pre- and post-camp questionnaires, children’s journal entries toguided prompts such as “What was the most inter-esting thing you learned today?,” responses to vi-gnettes, and instructors’ observations of the chil-dren’s actual behavior. Overall, we found statisti-cally significant increases in knowledge about andpositive attitudes toward animals and the environ-ment. Instructors’ observations of children’s actualbehavior revealed a reduction in negative behaviors,such as littering or shouting at animals or calling theanimals bad names (“This monkey is stupid.”). Posi-tive actions, such as asking someone else not tobother an animal, did not increase, but the reductionof negative actions did indicate progress.Children also revealed a desire to take better careof animals in the future. Statements such as the fol-lowing in children’s journal entries also reflected anincrease in compassionate understanding: “Friend-ship … is most important to all animals, includinghuman beings.” “My attitude toward animals wasterrible, but now I discover animals have emotionalso.” Anecdotally, from observation of the childrenas well as parental responses, we also learned thatsome students became kinder toward their peers, es-pecially younger campers.ConclusionThis program and its evaluation allowed us todocument one way that young people can be helpedto develop positive and humane attitudes toward an-imals and nature. In our increasingly degradedworld, it is essential that we discover these critical in-tervention strategies to help avoid further massivelevels of extinction and biodiversity loss.Conservation education is beginning to be recog-nized as one of the critical components of preservinglife on Earth (Orr 2004). A recent textbook by SusanClayton and Gene Myers, Conservation Psychology:Understanding and Promoting Human Care for Nature,is evidence of a growing interest in new ways of un-derstanding psychology and behavior in terms ofconservation. This comprehensive text explores theemerging field of conservation psychology, namely,the study of human behavior and the achievement ofpositive and enduring humane conservation goals.The foundation of the camp curriculum was basedin large part on the human universals of compassion,morality, and solid scientific knowledge about ani-mals and natural systems. Humane and conserva-tion education programs need to be designed to helpchildren overcome socially and culturally imposeddistancing from animals and each other. This needsto occur not just in China but globally. Perhaps, incombination with other forms of humane education,conservation education can contribute to a morepeaceful and kinder human presence in the world.ReferencesClayton, S., and Myers, Jr. O. E. 2009. Conservation psychology:Understanding and promoting human care for nature. WestSussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Elvin, M. 2004. The retreat of the elephants: An environmental his-tory of China. New Haven: Yale University Press.Louv, R. 2005. Last child in the woods: Saving our children fromnature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin.Orr, D. W. 2004. Earth in mind: On education, environment, andthe human prospect. Washington, D. C.: Island Press.Song, W. 2004. Traditional Chinese culture and animals. Ani-mal Legal and Historical Center. Available online at<www.animallaw.info/nonus/articles/arcnweiculturalatt2005.htm>.Volume 22, Number 4 (Winter 2009) 27

Fostering Humane Attitudes Toward Animals : An Educational Camp Experience in China

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Fostering Humane Attitudes Toward Animals : An Educational Camp Experience in China

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