Giving Children a Choice: A Proposal for Developing Empathy

We tend to act upon what we believe to be true. When we deal with the world, we do so in a way which retlects our view of the world. This view has largely been transmitted to us by those who have cared for us as children. Our parents and guardians bave shared with us a great deal of information including, to some degree, our methods for dealing with other sentient beings, both human and nonhuman. As we matured, we were faced with the moral problem of animal exploitation. For most of us, this problem appeared long after we had begun to use animals in everyday life. We were not given the information with which to make a rational decision regarding the treatment of nonhumans. We found this information later in life. As a society, we do not provide children with the information necessary to later make rational choices regarding the treatment of animals. We do not give children an opportunity to empathize with nonbumans. Before we continue, we should define a few basic terms. I will use the terms 'human' and 'person' more or less interchangeably to refer to rational persons and those who will become rational persons. I will use the words 'animal' and 'nonhuman' to refer to members