Campaign K-12 - Letter to Top School Officials
From All-Creatures.org Animal Rights Activism Articles Archive

FROM

Responsible Policies for Animals (RPA)
June 2015

RPA is asking school officials about an educational matter so basic that it might be overlooked in K-12 curriculum formulation: Does public-school education ensure that students learn what kind of animal they are?

Responsible Policies for Animals sent letters like the one below to all 50 states' top public-school officials.

Please write to your state's top school official and those of the other 49 states.

Here is the list of the 50 states' top school officials with their addresses.

Here is a very brief outline of the kind of animal human beings are:

What Kind of Animal Are We?

For policy-making participation in a representative republic, it is crucial for citizens to have a working knowledge of the kind of animal they are, as sound policy is based on the biological facts of human nature, while poor policy and its harmful consequences are nearly always rooted in misconceptions about and divergence from our species' natural lifeways. Science has established that human beings are plant-foraging herbivorous apes originating on the African savanna; are naturally prey to large cats, reptiles, dogs, and raptors, not predators as only through their imagination did they acquire weapons and other media of aggression; are peaceable, empathetic, cooperative, and altruistic by nature, stirred to violence mainly by injustice, deception, or demagoguery; and are innately fascinated with, studious of, and empathetic toward nonhuman animals, whose natural abundance and enormous variety were the most salient facts of original humans' daily lives.

Here is a two-page series of statements about the kind of animal human beings are, with each statement followed by reliable sources proving or supporting the truth of the statement.

Letter:

May 11, 2015

The Honorable Tom Torlakson
Superintendent
California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Suite 5602
Sacramento, CA 95814-5901

Dear Superintendent Torlakson:

I am writing to ask you about an educational matter so basic that it might be overlooked in California's K-12 curriculum formulation: Does California public-school education ensure that students learn what kind of animal they are?

I was fortunate to attend several accredited Pennsylvania schools, public and private, graduating from high school in 2008, going on to do very well in college, and now pursuing a promising career, with a strong desire to contribute to society as an engaged citizen. Currently an intern at Responsible Policies for Animals (RPA), I am doing some of the organization's research into root causes of war, genocide, disease, poverty, racism, misogyny, and other human miseries – and how ignorance of the kind of animal we are perpetuates deeply flawed policies in those areas and prevents sound ones.

I have come to see that my entire school experience, though it taught me and my peers some basic principles of evolution and natural selection, taught me neither our species' precise nature, nor the nature of other animals, nor the natural, original relationship between human beings and Earth's other animals. Thus, I studied through college without acquiring knowledge crucial to political engagement in a democratic republic – an understanding of human nature. Scientific knowledge has been doubling every two years in recent decades, but formal education does not appear to be keeping up.

Does the California Department of Education incorporate what is known about our species into the K-12 curriculum? To the extent that it does, would you be able to send me some representative information from the curriculum, required textbooks, and other sources showing what California teaches children about the kind of animal they are? I look forward to your response regarding this important matter. Thank you for your consideration, and do not hesitate to contact me at the above address or at [...] with any questions about this inquiry.

Sincerely yours,
Ben Lotka
Responsible Policies for Animals

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