T's First Day of School...

Sana

Arachnoprince
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
1,139
My son is in preschool this year, to my overwhelming joy. It's been nice to have a few hours to myself each day. During parent/teacher conferences in October my son's teacher asked my significant other and I what we were good at. The school tries to involve parents in the classroom by using their strengths and things they enjoy. Seems like a good plan on their part but I'm a workaholic and better at being a provider than super-mom, so the idea of getting involved in the classroom and spending time with sixteen three to five year old kids strikes fear in my heart. I told the teacher that I seemed to be fairly skilled at raising T's, thinking that she would respond negatively toward the hobby (like many people). No luck there as she found it very interesting and asked if I would be willing to play show and tell with them. Dug my own grave there.

This is how I found myself a couple days before Halloween loading four T's of varying sizes and species (a. metallica, g. pulchripes, p. vitatta, and p. sp. "Santo Domingo") into my truck along with my family and heading to school. At the school we sat down on the floor with the class and one by one showed them each spider. We intentionally took two T's that were hungry and a few crickets so that the kids could see them hunt and eat. We answered questions about where each was from, why they different colors, what the difference was between arboreal and terrestrial, were they as soft as they looked, how to say spider in ASL, and a million more. The T kids were such a hit that three other classes asked us to come in. The biggest disappointment to the whole experience as far as the kids were concerned was that they couldn't touch or hold the spiders.

For myself I learned the joy of teaching people about T's. If I'm ever asked to participate in another project to educate children about them, I definitely won't hesitate to do so. I think that it would be interesting to educate adults as well, but I've noticed where my friends and family are concerned at least, that adults are much less receptive than children. I've seen some posts here about using molts in projects that are donated to various facilities to educate people. If anyone has been involved in such projects I would love to know how that came about and how I might also get involved.
 

Enn49

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 3, 2014
Messages
105
I used to take my snakes to my grandsons birthday parties and I found that the adults would show fear whereas the children were drawn to them to begin with. Gradually as the afternoon progressed the adults, seeing their kids handling them without hesitation, would move in and, maybe rather than show themselves up in front of their offspring, eventually handle them themselves. I had one lady so terrified she ran out of the room when she realised what I had but a few hours later she was holding a 6 foot boa. It turned out her husband had always wanted to own a boa and she'd refused so she was going to have to go home and admit to him what she'd done and that she would now love one.

Maybe if you tried the same sort of thing with Ts you could also educate the parents. I'm still working on my daughter lol.
 

Sana

Arachnoprince
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
1,139
I managed to get a few parents from the school trip and nobody was super upset about the T's being there as they weren't being handled or anything like that. A side note, I do handle a couple of my T's, specifically the g. pulchripes and a. metallica, from time to time. My son however DOES NOT handle any of them. I believe that four is far too young to touch any T in any way, for his safety and theirs. He helps me with them in a lot of ways. He started a burrow in an unoccupied terrarium that we set up for the g. pulchripes and helped me build a custom hide. He likes to see them eat, drink, and just be T's. He and my niece are absolutely in love with all the T's and will hopefully continue that love throughout their lives.
 

SuzukiSwift

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
1,208
That's fantastic =) Good on you, it's great for the hobby and shows kids that spiders are not 'evil'. I had the privilege to show primary kids a few Ts a couple of times, they were all so fascinated, now their classroom has its on B.smithi and G.rosea =)
 

Ghost Dragon

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
27
Good for you, Sana. I usually volunteer a couple of times a year at a reptile expo where a friend's company that sells T's is set up, and I love talking to people about T's, especially those that are arachnophobic. When some of them work up the nerve to handle one, the look in their eyes when their trepidation turns instantly into fascination is really cool to see. :)
 

ARACHNO-SMACK48

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 29, 2013
Messages
284
It's good to educate people about our hobby. I personally feel like I would get fed up with the ignorant comments some people seem to make.. like "won't they kill you".
 

Sana

Arachnoprince
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
1,139
It's good to educate people about our hobby. I personally feel like I would get fed up with the ignorant comments some people seem to make.. like "won't they kill you".
I haven't gotten irritated with that one yet. That was actually the better part of teaching small children though. They don't yet have it set in their minds that giant spiders must be deadly. I think the one thing that actually got me with the kids was the request to see them walk. Not a big problem with my g. pulchripes since she's super tolerant, but she had just eaten and was moving very slowly. Thus the kids didn't understand exactly how quickly they actually can move when they want to.
 

FaaFaa

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Messages
14
Being a mother and a Preschool teacher I have done a few Tarantula show-and-tells. They are always a ton of fun. I love all the questions that the kids come up with. You will almost always come up against a child/parent/teacher who is fearful, but this is the best part. While they may remain fearful after your visit they are more educated. Education is power. If we can teach others to respect tarantulas instead of fear them then we, as educators, have done our job. There always seems to be one or two aspects of the tarantula that will peek even the most fearful persons curiosity. I love this hobby!
 

tonypace2009

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
226
I feel most fears are learned responses from others rather than from actual experience. Education and good a experience goes a long way toward riding people of there fears. It's a lot easier to teach a kid that a tarantula can't shoot venom 20 feet and eat a horse, than a adult.
 

Spinosaur23

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
6
The zoo in my town has a volunteer program that I am in, we're called "Zoo Crew" and the zoo only has a few inverts(mostly common pet store ones:( like your standard G. Rosea, Red Clawed emperor scorpion, GBB(which isn't for handling, sadly)etc. I usually get the "bug call" scince I know more than the average joe about the inverts, and have to spice up the public info sheets. It's an excellent program that I enjoy very much. The "ignorant" comments don't bother me I almost find it comedic!!! As well as the "big tuff guy" that won't even enter the door, just because I have a little rose hair in my hand!!! But it's all about teaching the people about the animals and the zoo it's self, kind of like a live version of animal planet.
 
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