NATURE'S CHILDREN

Have you ever watched a small child with a bug? They want to touch it and they dont hesitate to let it move across their hands. Little ones are curious and fearless as they interact with the natural world. But somewhere along the way, many of us lose our sense of wonder about nature. Maybe its because we had a bad experience with a bee or a biting fly. Maybe it's because an adult yelled "Watch out. That's dangerous!" I believe that we have a responsibility to teach our children to be cautious without instilling fear.

That was my intention the day my first graders encountered a huge praying mantis on the playground. The girls squealed and one of the boys was preparing to stomp on it when I intervened. "Here's my chance to teach respect for nature," I thought. In my best teacher voice I cautioned the children against picking up anything unless they knew it was safe to handle, and then I picked up that big green mantis and held it on my outstretched hand. The children gathered round and were soon oohing and ahhing over the color, the "praying hands", and the head that swiveled from side to side. "Does it bite?" someone asked. "Oh, no," I replied. Just then that mantis lowered its head, and chowed down on the fleshy part at the base of my thumb. It hurt! I wanted to flatten the thing right then and there, just squash the stuffing out of it, but with 15 pair of trusting little eyes looking on, I gritted my teeth against the pain and said something about putting it back into nature. I walked over to the nearest shrub and turned my back so that the children wouldn't see me giving the mantis a none to gentle flick to make it turn loose. Later I could tell from their chatter that the children had a new respect for nature.....

and so did I!