This school year, the elder Free-Ride offspring has a classroom teacher who used to be one of the elementary school's science teachers. (Owing to budget cuts, both the science teachers have "retreated" to be general purpose classroom teachers, and all the classroom teachers have to teach their own science lessons.)
I'm happy about this because it means the science instruction the elder Free-Ride offspring gets in the classroom is going to be good. The elder Free-Ride offspring is happy about this because it means there's a snake in the classroom.
The snake in question shares a name with a character from a comic strip; I don't want to expose him to creepy internet snake stalkers, so let's call him "Ziggy".
Ziggy came to the classroom in the middle of this week. He's been checking out the kids while they check him out. The elder Free-Ride offspring told me, in a mock-offended tone, "Ziggy was rude to me! When I came near his cage, he stuck out his tongue!"
Dr. Free-Ride: Mmmm, yeah. That wasn't rudeness. That was a snake smelling you.
Elder offspring: (more mock-outrage) Ziggy thinks I smell? I just bathed!
Dr. Free-Ride: Ziggy was using smell to get to know you, and maybe figure out if you were friend or foe.
Elder offspring: Ziggy has known me for a couple years. Ziggy knows what I smell like.
Dr. Free-Ride: You don't think it's possible that, to Ziggy, all fifth graders smell alike.
Elder offspring: I do not.
Here are some facts about the classroom snake, compiled by the elder Free-Ride offspring:
- Ziggy is a three-year-old male ball python. ("Why are they called ball pythons?" I asked. "I have no idea," the elder Free-Ride offspring answered.)
- He is a constrictor, but he bites his prey to hold on to it.
- His eyes see well, but the top sense in a snake is smell/tasting with its tongue.
- This summer, he outgrew the "log" in his cage; when he tried to coil up in it, he "lifted" it off the floor ot his cage!
The younger Free-Ride offspring, whose third grade classroom is currently without critters, offers this drawing of a ball python:
The kids in Ziggy's classroom have been told that today is a feeding day. The feeding will happen during a recess, so the kids have the option of staying to watch or being someplace else when it happens.
The elder Free-Ride offspring plans to watch. Despite expressing some sympathy for the mouse that is slated to be Ziggy's meal, the elder Free-Ride offspring is curious to see Ziggy in "hunting" mode. (The younger Free-Ride offspring, who will almost certainly not be able to see the feeding, is more curious to see how Ziggy's shape changes after the mouse is ingested and as it is being digested.)
You know, the only classroom animals I remember from my grade school years are guppies. Is it too late to call for a do-over?
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Kudos to the elder Free-Ride offspring's teacher for an excellent classroom pet! Hopefully that means 20-odd more kids, and eventually adults, who won't be afraid of a garter snake in their backyard or on a hike.
If anyone from PeTA reads your blog they will quickly offer a computer simulation of a snake eating a mouse for your kids to observe and learn.
What do you think? Would that be the same? What do they kids think?
The computer simulation might satisfy my kid (I'd have to ask to be sure), but I doubt it would satisfy Ziggy.
I still fondly remember the pet snakes from my 7th grade life science classroom. Leonardo the corn snake and Aristotle the ball python were awesome! We also had a tarantula named Rosie. Way cooler than guppies (no offense to your past classroom pets).
I think it's great that the kids are getting exposed to reptiles. Too many people grow up thinking snakes are slimy, etc.
Also, they are called Ball Pythons because under great stress, they coil up into a tight ball, with their head tucked inside. It doesn't happen often (and you don't WANT it to happen) but it's really wierd to hold a grapefruit-sized ball-o-snake on the palm of your hand
In our uiversity level animal survey course, when we got to reptiles in lab, we would go up to the snake room, look at the snakes and bring a very nice boa down to the lab for the students to look at and handle.
This female student came to me and told me she was deathly afraid of snakes and did not want to go to the snake room. I said, well just come to the door, you don't have to come in. She did this until I got the boa out. Then she came in, white and shaking, and asked if she could carry the boa downstairs. She did so, put the boa down on a lab table, and sort of collapsed on a chair in the corner. In a few minutes she was back to normal. I was very impressed and pleased that she had the courage to face and overcome her irrational fear of snakes.
It's great to see classroom pets are around, I never had one when I was in elementary school.
To make up for that I have 5 snakes of my own now and I go to my old school and a few others doing presentations about snakes. It's really rewarding to watch the kids interact with the animals and learn something about them. I usually invite the parents to the presentations too in order to ease any unfounded fears about children getting eaten and to teach the adults a little bit too.
Kudos to the teacher for keeping an awesome pet to teach the kids.