Sample case · Middle School
Middle School sample case
A taste of the cases Middle School teams discuss. Register and your school receives the current full case set and program.
Using animals
Babe: Pig in the City
Film clip summary. Gentle farmer Arthur Hoggett wins a piglet named Babe at a county fair. Narrowly escaping his fate as Christmas dinner when Farmer Hoggett decides to show him at the next fair, Babe bonds with motherly border collie Fly and discovers that he too can herd sheep. But will the other farm animals, including Fly’s jealous husband Rex, accept a pig who doesn’t conform to the farm’s social hierarchy?
Students watch this short segment of the film Babe before discussing the questions.
Study questions
- Do you think it is OK to eat animals as long as they are stupid?
- Which animals would you not eat, and why?
- All animals can experience pain. Is this relevant to the question of whether it is all right to eat them?
- When you learned that the duck had a name, did it change your feelings about the family eating it?
- In China people eat dogs. In France people eat horses. Is this any more disgusting than eating cows or pigs?
- Should we all be vegetarians?
This case was designed by Professor Tom Wartenberg, “What’s the Big Idea: Big Questions for Middle School Students”.