A doctor's idea of show and tell -- opening up a cadaver arm in front of elementary school pupils for a lesson in anatomy and art -- caused one student to faint and made others feel sick from the smell of formaldehyde.
Some parents of the fifth-graders complained to a board member at the Fox Chapel Area School District. School officials Thursday said they would look into the matter. Children in fifth grade are about 10 years old.
The limb was brought in Tuesday by Dr. Michael Horowitz, a neurosurgeon whose children attend Fairview Elementary School in Fox Chapel, a well-to-do suburb about 8km east of Pittsburgh.
Horowitz, whose son was in the classroom, was using the arm as a visual aid for a discussion on the 1875 Thomas Eakins painting The Gross Clinic, which shows a surgeon removing diseased bone from a patient's thigh. A 19th-century art critic called the work "a picture that even strong men find it difficult to look at long, if they can look at it at all."
During the discussion, Horowitz opened the cadaver arm to show students nerves, tendons and other parts. There was no blood. He said he discussed carpal tunnel syndrome and explained to the children how there isn't really a funny bone.
"I've found kids are actually pretty tolerant of seeing stuff like this. They don't really see it as disgusting. When you see it in a lab, it's different," Horowitz said.
The boy who fainted had passed out for 10 to 20 seconds and was taken to the nurse, district spokeswoman Bonnie Berzonski said. He returned to school the next day, she said.
Five of the 66 students left the classroom at some point because of the strong smell of the preservatives, Berzonski said.
School member Shirley Wiley said about 10 parents called her to say they were stunned they were not notified about the presentation.
"In this case it was totally the parents' call. I think they had the right to do so," Wiley said.
The doctor said he was surprised by the complaints, saying he has visited the class and other schools with cadaver ears and eyes, as well as dog and rat brains.
"These same kids are taken to The Matrix and see people's heads blow off," Horowitz said.
"We sort of accept it when it's entertainment but this is science," he said.
The district has received no complaints about Horowitz's past visits but will review his most recent one to determine whether it was appropriate for fifth-graders, Berzonski said.
Students were told about the discussion in advance. However, "in hindsight, probably a letter should have been sent home and we will be doing that in the future," Berzonski said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia