Narrow Minded People

[MrsP]

I took Mr Snuggles to school today, and the kids were so excited. The head met him and told me how lovely he is.

However, she also asked me if I would mind keeping him in my room today and not to take him into the staffroom as some staff had complained about him being there and said they didn't want him in there while they have their lunch. While I appreciate that I'm unusual in my love for animals, I had emailed all staff on Friday last week warning them he would be in and saying I'd bring him into the staffroom, so they've all had several days notice to express concerns to me. I would have been more than happy to keep him in my room. It's just that they waited until today and went and whinged about it to the head.

Also what has really annoyed me a lot is one member of staff shouted quite loudly in front of kids, including my own daughter, that it was disgusting and that I shouldn't have been allowed to bring him in. Understandably my daughter was quite upset about this.

It's made me realise that even supposedly intelligent, mature adults, can be incredibly narrow minded. While I appreciate that some people are not animal people, and some might even be a bit nervous around a more unusual animal, I think it's sad that I've had this reaction. One woman said to me, quite aggressively "Don't bring it any where near me". She hadn't even seen it, and I would certainly never force somebody to see an animal if they didn't want to. I also find it quite sad that people who are meant to be educating children can't see what an opportunity this was for the kids. The head did, which is why she agreed for me to bring him in.

Interestingly, the kids who initially went "eeewwww" when I said I was bringing him, have all, without exception turned from "eewwww" to "aaaawwww"!!

While I was confined to my room at lunchtime apparently there was quite a debate in the staffroom about it and comments were made about how I shouldn't be keeping wild animals as pets etc., and they knew I wasn't likely to come down and have a chance to put my point of view across.

When it was science week, they had tarantulas, scorpions, ferrets, geese (mine) and various other animals down there and not one thing was said about it.

[Steve L]

what animal was it?

[angels1531]

Shame on them for having no vision to the opportunitys given to those kids, who sound like they found the experience fun and educational.
I often find that those who are 'lower ability' often find the hands on experience beneficial which certainly helps build self esteem and sparks interest in other directions.
If they do not have the ability to see the many positivities in providing them the chance to learn about an animal that they may never get to see again, then perhaps 'teaching' is not the field that they should be in. IMHO of course!

[hopper]

Originally Posted by Morelia-for-sale

what animal was it?

thats what im thinking lol

[carlycharlie]

Originally Posted by hopper

thats what im thinking lol

Skunk

[MrsP]

Sorry, Mr Snuggles is my skunk.

I've taken a Macaw in before and nobody took issue with that. It's just this perception of a "skunk" based on inaccurate tv depictions and lack of knowledge. It's a shame these adults weren't adult enough to take the chance to learn about something new themselves.

Took him to meet the people at my local rep shop earlier and they were delighted as none of them had ever seen a skunk before.

[skimsa]

My job is taking animals into schools. I work for Zoo Lab.

The techers are easily worse than the children. I have a box with all the animals in and i cary it where ever ive go.
Many times ive been sat in a staff room eating lunch box beside me talking away, then someone ask's if theres a snake/spider in the box i say yes then someone hysterically runs out! Their doubley locked in cant see them grow up.

[kodakira]

This is not an excuse because I endorse eveyrthing you say but unfortunately it is todays society.

We have children who go to junior school, a number of years ago we took numerous exotic animals into that school. We are not even allwed to take a Macaw feather in, seriously.
We go on field trips with the school and you would not believe the amount of children who did not know what a chicken or a cow was.
One of the reasons is that the schools are so frightened of getting sued for something. The other is that many people percieve animals and indeed animal keepers of being dirty and smelly. When you put them both together unfortunately you get people who should be welcoming the opportunity to learn so they can pass this on to their pupils unwilling to take up the opportunity.
We have witnessed this first hand. It is only becuase we have known some of the teachers for 20+ years amd they know us and visited our home to see our animals who put the ignorant ones in their place.

I do not think this is a teacher thing I think it is a general fact of todays society.

We do get the last laugh if that is they way to put it. My children fortunately are intelligent and we have brought them up with animals. We have used the animals in every aspect of there education, maths, history, geography, reading. For example, maths we would use lizard eggs for them to count, add, subtract, reading would be a story about animals.
I have 1 son with a degree in accountancy, a daughter with 12 A & B grade GCSE's and 3 A levels, a son who is at college now doing A levels and two younger children who are top of there classes. We actually have the respect of the better teachers and they recognise that the children can learn about smething if it is made interesting for them.

Rant over,

Best Wishes

Neil

[MrsP]

Fortunately it was a minority.

The Head was amazing - I had asked her permission first and her only concern was potential allergy issues, she knew I wasn't just going to let him loose around the school - and asked that I just check with kids with asthma and allergies and be aware that there was a potential issue there, which was fine.

I warned all staff on Friday by email, giving them ample opportunity to raise any concerns with me but they didn't bother, they just went moaning to the Head this morning. Of course, she had endorsed the visit in the first place so although she asked that I keep him in my room, I know she'd back me up if she heard anybody slagging me off about it. She couldn't keep her hands off him and kept saying how gorgeous he was.

The whole thing was worth it when a little lad out in the special needs unit asked if he could come and see him, and it completely made his day. That made my day to be honest.

I just find it dreadful that people working in education are happy to demonstrate such bigoted and ignorant views..

[cs3ae]

I think its very good idea to take a skunk into school. Its probably the only time most children will ever get to see one. Cant believe how narrow minded some of the staff were.