One Setting in the Life Cycle

So I’m working as a TA Sub academic coach at a Junior High.

And I really think that everybody over the age of 30 should have a couple days watching from a corner in a 7th grade classroom.  These youths have so many skills (typing, calculator, PE locker combinations) so much brain power, so much FUTURE!
Granted we are only a couple weeks into the semester, but the routine is taking shape.

First Hour is Science.  The teacher had the students put their heads down so they couldn’t see what their neighbors were doing.  He asked who wanted to go on a Nature Walk.  Maybe 7 kids raised their hands.

I must say that I voted for the Nature Walk, cuz I figured learning outside of the classroom is almost always my preference.

Then he asked who wanted to watch the Snake Feeding.
Every hand in the room shot up.  He said they could only vote one time, so those who had voted first lowered their hands, which still left a 2/3 majority.

The ball python was laid inside a clear container, which was then put in full view on a table and stack of books in the center of the room.
The teacher went over to the mouse cage, caught a mouse by the tail, carried it (screeching and squirming) to the snake’s box, opened the top a tiny bit, dropped the mouse in and slammed shut the lid.

The students were supposed to be doing scientific observations and taking copious notes.

Yeah, Rrriightt…..

I don’t think I should go into small details about a snake’s dining habits.  Just remembering some of the scenes in my mind’s eye cause a churning in my tummy.  That poor little mouse should have been adopted by Walt Disney so it could live on for years and years.

For 7th graders, tho, this was the coolest sight ever.  Conversations in the hallway about who had seen what in which class Hour all day long.  There are two snakes, and each got fed 3 mice through the day’s schedule.  If the teacher could somehow do the test using Verbal Input, everybody would earn high marks.

It all happens again in 12 days.

I’ll be on a walk.

~~love and Huggs, Diane