Meat, bones, dairy products, and fats and oils should be put in the garbage or buried in the ground at least 8 inches deep. That way it feeds the next generation of fruits or vegetables. And it's tough to keep the kids from getting grit under their fingernails when the teacher himself can't resist reaching into the compost pile and scooping up a worm. Look, a baby worm. You couldn't ask for anything more than a baby worm.
Worms are just awesome.
I forget who said it, but every piece of topsoil on the earth is passed through the body of an earthworm at least once. In nature, decaying or decayed organic materials juice up the soil. When plant and tree parts fall off in forests, they gradually become part of the ground again, providing a perpetual supply of nutrients for more plants. Composting is a speeding up of that breaking-down process. Blending organic goodies like table scraps, plant trimmings, even coffee grounds, in a pile creates sort of a Crock Pot of fertilizer.