School displays Questionable???

[DanTheReptileMan]

Yea i think its good
at a young age they havnt developed a fear of them from others or from movies or whateva and have a more open mind to the idea of atleast touching a snake

 

[hawkesbury reptiles]

I would definately say that the person doing the show approched the kids in a way that wasn't a positive experience for them. I have never seen a group of kids (any age) freak out at an animal/reptile show with an experienced presenter at the helm....

 

[FNQ_Snake]

Well, that is a dissapointing result. Maybe the ratio was exaggerated a little bit. Either that or they're a bunch of sooks.

LOL.

 

[kakariki]

I have taken snakes, lizards, stickies,birds in fact if we have it, it's been to school. The kids love it. We only have 47 kids at our school, 3 classes & although my 2 kids are in the same class, we usually go to the others as well. I also gave a series of after school sessions teaching kids about pets. We focused 1 session on cats [ keeping them in mainly ] & followed that up by showing them some of the creatures that fall prey to cats. The last session was mainly reptiles & unusual pets like scorps, stickies etc. I found it important to talk about the critter before getting it out of the box/ bag. Only had a problem once. The teacher was fine, standing next to me & chatting until she found out what was in the box [ Calliope the Bredli!]. LOL good thing no kids heard what she said. THEY get detention for saying THAT!!!LOL

 

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day guys,

I thought I'd point out a couple of things. Firstly, the demonstrator should have been on the ball and worked out if any of the kids were going to be overly scared about what they were about to experience. There's a number of techniques that we employ to make kids (and adults!) feel totally safe and in control of just how close they want to get to the animals. The problem exists with a few of the over the top, danger-emphasising demonstrators out there. Just last weekend my partner saw a display where the guy was talking about one of his brown snakes that chased him across the room trying to bite his kneecaps, and that if you're bitten by a Death Adder your almost certain to die - not exactly the best way to be reinforcing why you don't want to be whacking a snake over the head with a shovel.

Secondly, to all those who are taking their animals into the school - make sure you clear it with your relevant licencing body, as most states don't permit you to take your animals off of your property without prior permission.

Cheers

 

[carkat]

I'm a primary teacher and at our school we have had a couple of different 'reptile shows' come into the school to show their animals and talk to our kids. We had one very bad experience with one operater (all teachers voted to never have that person ever return). However we have had others come and it has been a fanastic experience for all. Ofcourse we female teachers are always the ones who get draped with the python to show how safe it is!! Pking, encorage your friend to keep going and have more visits. And as someone rightly said, preparation before the event smooths the way for better responses.

 

[Snakeaholic]

yeah does anyone know the rules for taking pythons to school (in general - not for any special display thingo)
because i really wanna take mine to school to show all ma classmates

 

[Lesa]

That story sounds a bit sus' to me. A reptile show came to our school of over 800 students recently and I did not witness (or hear about) 1 case of traumatised chldren. On the contrary the teachers had a hard time keeping very excited kids controlled when it came time to "pat" the reptiles. Members of the environmental club all got to help out duting the display and they were THRILLED. I have taken our childrens pyhton to my kids prep classes and not one child there displayed any fear - only a natural curiosity. My year 6/7 class are constantly on my case to bring my snakes in for show and tell.

My experience as a teacher leads me to beleive that it was probably a group of kids (I'd lay money they'd be girls) who decided to put on a bit of a "show" themselves for attention, not through any real fear or distress (there may have been one genuine case and the rest jumped on the bandwagon). Maybe they should be offered a can of "toughen up!". I can't imagine any reputable reptile show, employed by a school doing anything to cause children distress. I have see several over many years and have never been anything but impressed.

 

[Vincent21]

I had a reptile show at my high school last year, but i wasn't there.

 

[bubbaloush]

Our local kindy has a snake visit them and the kids love it, to the point i have been asked to bring in one or two of our snakes as they are different to the childrens they are used to seeing lol

I guess it depends on how informed the kids are leading up to the reptiles visit and how the person displayed/presented the animals. the kindy kids all know about snakes and what to/not to do around snakes and its great as the kids grow up to like snakes and not be scared of them.

 

[bigguy]

In all my years of doing school shows(around 20years) I would be lucky to have no more then 30 kids loose it through the show. Young kids are normally amazed, not scared when you bring out the reptiles.

Having said this, there is a company from Queensland who travel around Australia and appear to take pleasure in terrorising the students and teachers alike. They have given this industry a very bad name, and most schools who have them are reluctant to ever have another reptile show.

 

[Timotei]

Weak children.

Not enough beating.

Why in my day my dad would throw us in the snakepit thrice a day if our eyes so much as watered...

But seriously, exposure's good, but time is of the essence. You must take baby steps to overcoming fears. It only takes one bad experience as a child to put you off snakes indefinitely, and do not forget that humans and ALL PRIMATES have a BIOLOGICAL disposition against snakes. We have sections of our nervous response dedicated to identification of serpents. 1 in every 3 adults suffers from snake phobia.

That and we should also bring back corporal punishment

 

[Hickson]

yeah does anyone know the rules for taking pythons to school (in general - not for any special display thingo)
because i really wanna take mine to school to show all ma classmates

You're in NSW, so it's against you're license conditions to take the snake off your premises unless it's going to the Vet or to a Reptile meeting. I think your teachers would have something to say about you taking a snake to school too.

Invite your classmates over to your home if you want to show them your python.



Hix

 

[JasonL]

Invite your classmates over to your home if you want to show them your python.

Hix

Showing off your python should always be done in private, no matter how drunk you are.

 

[Jewly]

I would say it had a lot more to do with the demonstrator than the snakes themselves. Either that, or as one other said, the kids were just being drama queens to get attention.

When I first got my snake, my friend brought her two children over, who are only 3 and 6 and both of them had no fear what-so-ever towards the snake and they came straight up and patted it. Most kids won't have a fear of snakes unless it's been drummed into them.

 

[Leezel73]

I am all for school displays!!! After having the CROC ENCOUNTERS going to my sons childcare thats what all the kids talked about for weeks, I believe if it wasn't for the guy I would never have gotten over my fear of snakes... I went up to ask if I could have a pat of the snake next thing I knew he put the snake on me!!! It was a huge turning point... Alot of adults though who did have a fear or didn't want to pat or anything to do with the reptiles I found that this rubbed off on their children... because their children acted scared because of parents... (males included!!)

 

[hawkesbury reptiles]

My experience as a teacher leads me to beleive that it was probably a group of kids (I'd lay money they'd be girls) who decided to put on a bit of a "show" themselves for attention, not through any real fear or distress (there may have been one genuine case and the rest jumped on the bandwagon). Maybe they should be offered a can of "toughen up!". I can't imagine any reputable reptile show, employed by a school doing anything to cause children distress. I have see several over many years and have never been anything but impressed.

I don't have much experience as a teacher, but during animal shows I have done, both for school groups and for community shows, its quite disturbing to see almost 80% of young boys absolutely adamant they will not go anywhere near the animals and either hide behind their parents or walk/run away. Whereas 90% of girls, while they will firstly refuse to touch, they almost always will slowly come around and eventually touch or handle the animal. I have only done shows around the sydney area, I hope this isn't the overall trend everywhere else.

Are we raising a generation of wooses.....:shock:

 

[Hickson]

Some years ago I was sitting in on a group of government representatives from Pacific nations (PNG, Solomons, Vanuatu, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tonga, Nauru etc) that were doing a training course run by the Australian Conservation Training Initiative at Taronga Zoo. At one point I gave a 15 minute presentation to them on snakes, as most of them had never seen a snake, being from countries with only lizards and frogs. As I walked around the room with a large BHP draped around my shoulders, talking about their various adaptations and way of life, I had invited the participants to gently touch or stroke the snake. Everyone, including all the men, simply leaned back slightly when I came around and didn't try to touch it. They were fascinated, and trusted me, but just couldn't bring themselves to reach out.

Until i got to the woman from PNG. I could see her smacking her lips, and as she reached out and very roughly patted it in a blase manner, she amde a comment about wishing Sepik Province had big fat snakes like this one, as it would feed her whole family.

After that, some of the other women touched it, and then ALL the men (including ones I had passed) came up too. It seems that they felt if a woman could touch it, it wouldn't look good if they were too afraid to do the same!

At Morning Tea one of the guys from Fiji asked if I could drape the BHP over his shoulders for a photo, which I did. After giving me the python back he said he would never, ever toucha snake again, but he just had to have that photo to show his kids - because after they see how brave he was, they would never disobey him again!



Hix

 

[Wild~Touch]

Once in Victoria at an Animal Nursery type thing, I saw one little girl terrified of a baby bunny.
It seems to me a lot of children do not have natural exposure to any type of animals. I will never forget the look on the terrified child she could not /would not pat the baby rabbit. It just makes me sad.

 

[jessb]

Some years ago I was sitting in on a group of government representatives from Pacific nations (PNG, Solomons, Vanuatu, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tonga, Nauru etc) that were doing a training course run by the Australian Conservation Training Initiative at Taronga Zoo. At one point I gave a 15 minute presentation to them on snakes, as most of them had never seen a snake, being from countries with only lizards and frogs. As I walked around the room with a large BHP draped around my shoulders, talking about their various adaptations and way of life, I had invited the participants to gently touch or stroke the snake. Everyone, including all the men, simply leaned back slightly when I came around and didn't try to touch it. They were fascinated, and trusted me, but just couldn't bring themselves to reach out.

Until i got to the woman from PNG. I could see her smacking her lips, and as she reached out and very roughly patted it in a blase manner, she amde a comment about wishing Sepik Province had big fat snakes like this one, as it would feed her whole family.

After that, some of the other women touched it, and then ALL the men (including ones I had passed) came up too. It seems that they felt if a woman could touch it, it wouldn't look good if they were too afraid to do the same!

At Morning Tea one of the guys from Fiji asked if I could drape the BHP over his shoulders for a photo, which I did. After giving me the python back he said he would never, ever toucha snake again, but he just had to have that photo to show his kids - because after they see how brave he was, they would never disobey him again!



Hix

What a great story! I know Fiji is full of mongeese (mongooses?) and they don't have any snakes at all!