I sometimes hear American millennials referencing this kind of thing and I'm pretty sure my country phased it out in like the 70s, before millennials or zoomers existed

EDIT:to be clear I don't actually think we're like morally superior for not doing this. (so long as it's ok for vegan kids to opt out) I can see value in studying anatomy practically rather than in a text book


30 comments
  1. Class of 09 here. I dissected a frog, a cat, a starfish, a sheep’s eye, an owl pellet, and a shark. I was also in zoology class so I probably dissected more than most but it definitely still happens.

  2. Haven’t been in K-12 in over a decade but I never dissected any animals. We did have classes with animals but instead we raised tadpoles to frogs, studied birds and had field trips to zoos and aquariums to learn about animals. Anything more in-depth was from videos in science courses.

  3. Class of 2021, I dissected worms, frogs, and a pig fetus when I was in honors biology

  4. I dissected an earthworm, a frog, and a fetal pig. That was in the early to mid-2000s.

  5. Class of 17 here. We dissected a shark and a squid at one point. Otherwise, nah.

  6. Graduated high school in 2011. Dissected owl pellets, giant earthworms, and rats in school. Never did the frog but I know plenty of other schools that did. In college i did a lot more advanced stuff, mostly pigs, but I have a science degree.

  7. I remember dissecting a frog twice. Once in Middle School and once in High School. That was back in the early 2010s. My freshman year Biology teacher was also the Anatomy teacher so she would keep the specimens that her anatomy class would dissect around. I remember one time showing us a dead cat that her anatomy students would be dissecting later that day.

  8. My high school did not, it was very poor and didn’t offer any “upper level” biology classes where we would’ve done that. I didn’t dissect animals until my sophomore year of my undergrad

  9. We did earthworm, owl pellet, frog, fetal pig, and cat in middle school through high school. I graduated in the early 2010s.

    I remember somebody opted out of the fetal pig. Don’t remember why though. They just did a computer generated dissection.

  10. We did squid in 5th grade and the anatomy class did other animals but I don’t remember what

  11. Yes. My kids start with simple things like cow eyes in 4th grade and by high school have done fetal pigs, cats, and things like that.

    It’s part of the normal curriculum that all kids do but there are ways to opt out with alternate assignments for those kids that can’t do it.

  12. Class of 2013, we dissected frogs and fetal pigs but everyone had an option to opt out and do an alternative assignment.

  13. Class of 18. Worm, frog, cow uterus, pigeon, I also skinned raccoon roadkill that I personally brought in but that was an odd scenario in an odd class.

  14. Class of ’07. Don’t remember anything in high school, but that’s not to say it didn’t happen, I just don’t remember. But in elementary school, we dissected a squid, wrote our name with the squid pen and ink, and then our teacher battered it up and fried us calamari. That was pretty cool.

  15. I didn’t dissect anything in high school but really, I veered off into earth sciences and then didn’t do science in my senior year

    My son, however, dissected a cow’s eye in 7th grade biology for Halloween, and I think an earth worm (later in the year)? When he takes bio in high school they’re talking about frogs and cats, but idk for sure.

    Edit: I think it may have been an owl pellet and not a worm

  16. Graduated in the late 00s.

    I didn’t have to dissect anything, but that’s because I was in the chemistry pipeline. The kids in the physics pipeline didn’t either.

    The vast majority of kids were in the biology pipeline though, and they had to dissect several things.

  17. In school we dissected a worm, crayfish, a frog (twice), a rat, and a cat. I graduated in 08

  18. I was class of 2015; I dissected a frog, owl pellet, squid, shark, starfish and a worm.

  19. Class of ‘13. We dissected chinook salmon carcasses from the nearby hatchery

  20. Class of 2017 checking in. Freshman year biology (2013) we dissected a frog, senior year 2016-2017 (Marine Biology elective) we dissected a squid and a shark.

    Honorable mention for the owl pellet that my 6th grade science class also dissected circa 2010.

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