FieldHerpForum

Hi everyone,

seven weeks ago I issued a cry for help, as I just had maneuvered myself into a commitment that sounded fun when I promised it, but looked a lot more daunting when I realized that I actually had no idea how to realize it: giving educational talks about snakes in local elementary schools.

Well, I did the first three shows last week, and thanks to the fantastic help I received from all y'all here on FHF, every single one of them was a rousing success. To quote myself from the above-mentioned thread:

... this was a truly AWESOME experience WAY beyond my wildest expectations. 20-odd kids in the room, right out the gate all completely mesmerized by the pix and the accompanying information for a solid hour....after which I called for the scheduled break (remember those who said?, "two hours are too long") and immediately faced a revolt: "NO BREAK! KEEP TALKING!". Holy Mother of Shiva.....after 90 minutes I had to virtually enforce a pee break for myself....and I hadn't even showed the snake I'd brought!

So here are a few impressions from the second show on Thursday, for the third and fourth graders at Hengshan Elementary School in rural Sanchih County, thirty miles north of Taipei, Taiwan.

Notes:
- the entire school has only 85 kids between six grades, hence the seemingly low attendance
- the masks are the standard prophylactic measure against H1N1 (aka swine flu)
- the photos are utter crap, because in reversal of the traditional setup, the stage was dark and the audience illuminated, and my wife doesn't know her way around my camera yet, so please be kind

Playin' the crowd


Always involve the audience, always let THEM write the names of the snakes on the whiteboard....even if it takes three kids to figure out the correct characters


Photos are good, but skins are better. Here's a nice one from a big Deinagkistrodon acutus, aka "Hundred-Pacer Viper", a resident at the Taipei Zoo Animal Rescue Center. A friend of ours works there and invited us to visit the center last Sunday. As it happened to be Hans junior's 11th birthday, our friend gave him this fantastically flawless skin as a gift. Instant Heaven!


"Why don't snakes blink?" "See those transparent scales...?"


Yes, skins are good, but they're even better when there's still an actual live snake inside. "Aaaaand nowwwwww...the moment you've all been waiting for....time to let the snake out of the bag!" (sadly, that pun doesn't work in Chinese ) I'd been telling them all morning that the little tank with the mystery bag inside contained my lunch....which nobody believed, of course, but my refusal to even hint at the contents certainly ramped up their excitement.


It's a nice and well-mannered Ptyas mucosa, aka Indo-Chinese Ratsnake!


All lined up for better riot control




Most of them just barely dared to touch the snake with one finger, but some were brave and eager enough to actually pick up the snake and let it run over their arms. Those kids wouldn't say it outright, but it was obvious from their eyes, and their blissful countenance when I handed them the animal ("hey, you look like you want to hold it....am I right?") was just beyond fantastic. Oddly enough, it's often the girls and the smallest guys who want to hold the snake. So much for stereotypes.


"Time to put it back - I need two of you to help me!" Again, most volunteers were girls and smallish boys.


BillMcgElaphe mentioned in the aforementioned thread "Be prepared to receive dozens of "thank you" notes that are often hysterical." I had NO idea how correct that would prove to be. After the show, they suddenly lined up again - this time for autographs (WTF?). "When will your book come out?" (My, uh, BOOK? WWTTFF??). Also, when I arrived at the school that morning, the first and second graders who had seen the show three days earlier, came up (ALL of them!) and gave me drawings of snakes we had talked about. Heart-warming pictures that actually showed a lot of the details I had taught them (such as the red eyes, red tail and white stripes of the Green bamboo viper (Viridovipera steijnegeri). Guess I did something right!


The school management was equally grateful. Here's the principal presenting me with a Certificate of Gratefulness (yes, that's the title) for the "three talks about snake ecology" I held there.....official MoE stamp and all. This will now go up on my office wall, in lieu of the college degree I never obtained.



If any of you ever have the remotest chance to do anything like this, Do It. Not only is it a rare opportunity to educate the next generation and teach them love and respect for something that, Cosmos knows, gets precious little love and respect, but it's also an immensely rewarding experience.

PS: "Hubris" is my middle name, so after having saturated the schools in our county, I want to go nationwide (logistically not a problem in such a small country). Well, ain't I lucky? Turns out Hengshan's principal is the vice secretary general of the National Association of School Principals, and she'll drum up heavy support for my cause at the next general meeting in December. Given that I'm only asking for a lunchbox and some gas money, I think there's cause for moderate hope.

Good job Hans! Looks like you got the "star" mojo!

Hans nice write up. I really enjoyed it and education is the key to saving all the creatures out there. If just one kid finds out the wonders of the world that's a huge difference really. Good work, and it seems it's very rewarding as well.

Good show, Hans! I 've had the same experience during outreach with children; that it is generally the girls who are more willing to hold snakes than boys. Go figure...

Hans Hubris Breuer ... has a nice ring to it. Congrats, buddy. I pre-ordered your book on Amazon but they said it wasn't available for the Kindle yet.

Nice job Hans!! Not having parents there and having the talk at school gets you less fear and a more controled audience. I find the parents can do little things like grab the child's shoulders tightly as the child reaches to touch the animal that will cause the kid to become fearful suddenly. Teachers on the other hand are not as strongly in control of the kids fear base but do have more respect (at least sometimes) than the parents command. So it is a great venue... unless they try to give you the whole school at once. Then it is chaos.

It is awesome that you have the interest and desire to try to tour around the country there. Good job and good luck!!

Jason

Wow. Really cool! It's funny, I know a lot of herpers who are kind of ashamed of their passion and tend to hide it from the outside world because they think that everyone will think they are weird for liking such strange and atypical animals. This is a perfect example that shows how actually a lot of the public does think these animals are cool and shows that every one of us should be out sharing our passion with the world. Only through education, starting with the youngest most impressionable kids, but also extending to people of all ages, can we eliminate the incorrect preconceptions about snakes and herps in general.

Brilliant job Hans. Way to spread the love and set a great example for all the enthusiasts world-wide.

-Alex

Thanks Hans, good work. I will recall this thread when I start prepping for my elementary school "show and tell" reptile talk in January... 90 first graders. Only, I'll ask for questions and I'll get... "Ya know what? My brother throwed up last night"

Educating the youth is like putting money in the bank, as it'll pay off later on. Nice work.

I've done a few of these talks too and I also found it surprising that girls and the weedier boys are much more interested in approaching and handling snakes than are the bigger, louder boys.

-Martti

Good job.. You're hooked now...
"Dry the cup", Hans

Thanks much for the kind words, everyone!


You nailed that one right between the eyes. Kids are not afraid of snakes - until the adults tell them to. I know this situation quite well from impromptu lectures I give in the field to passing hikers....


'Zackly. When selecting the photos for the shows, I was initially afraid to include those showing killing, feeding, or close-ups of gaping maws. Then I included them anyway, just in case. Then I showed a few....tentatively. Turns out those were exactly the ones the kids went totally nuts about (no exaggeration), and now they're among the highlights of the show.


Back atcha, Bill - thanks again for your great help!

UPDATE: word from the first three shows has made the rounds in the primary school circuit here already, and I just nailed two more schools today.....talk about biting off more than I can chew: unlike the minischools out here in the sticks, with their 80-100 kids in the entire school, those two new gigs are at huge institutions with two thousand kids each, and I'll be giving ten (10) talks in each school, talking to two hundred kids per show. That should be fun....."SCREAM TO ME, LONG BEACH!!!" (apologies to Bruce Dickinson)

Hans @ from dive bar gigs to sold-out stadiums in under two weeks

GREAT JOB Hans, glad to see how well it went for you. This is an inspiration to try to do more with schools to spread the word with kids. I know from the few I did from my sons and neices classes the looks of excitement kids have seeing herps and getting to actually put their hands on them.

RockRatt, Great early pass posture, offering the back end of a calm animal.
The kids' faces say it all...Perfect...
Bill

RR, great pic, and the expression on the kids' faces are just precious!

What's an early pass posture? Some football reference?

I was referring to being aware that some children can be terrified, so carrying a live animal, especially on the first few passes at a class, where you don't crowd in too close to the kids (let them feel they can come to you), and offering the posterior end first.
A calm animal is paramount and RockRat's animal is not too large to intimidate, but large enough for the kids to see scales, pattern, arrangement of the scutes, etc.
I know you guys get this... It's not really about the reptiles, it's about the children’s' perception of the reptiles.
B

Hi Hans,

Great job. Kids are the same everywhere. I've been doing this on a full time basis for over thirty years. Almost every day I am in front of school audiences ranging from 60 to 750 (average assembly program is about 350 students).

I can tell you that I'm like everybody else out there. Some days you just don't feel like going to work. After driving four hours for an 8:00 am program, setting up the sound system, bringing in the animals and setting up to begin, I'd just rather be back in bed.

Then the kids begin filing in. They're whispering and pointing. "Is that him?" They're wiggling and squiggling, and their eyes are THIS BIG. They can hardly contain themselves. They whisper, "Are they alive? Are they real? Are YOU the snake man?"

And no matter how tired I am, once the principal intoduces me and I flip on the microphone, I'M ON! The kids make it easy. I use only live animals, shed skins and the most amazing thing they've ever seen, a REAL snake egg (to show where baby snakes come from!).

Keep up the good work. As time goes by you might want to ask for a stipend above lunch and gas. Your time is valuable and while volunteering is great (I do several freebees each year) one school plus travel can take up a whole day from your regular everyday responsibilities. Nothing wrong with a little payment for your services. Even the great martial arts masters were paid cash to teach kung fu.

The best payment came about two weeks ago when a little four-year-old kindergarten girl bolted out of line and ran up to hug my legs. She looked up and said, "That was the best snake show I'VE EVER SEEN!"

Cheers,

Terry Vandeventer

It would have been the highlight of my life if we had a presentation like that when I was in grade school. Thanks for posting, I always enjoy your posts so much.

Thanks again, guys!


I know an American gentleman who during the late Fifties/early Sixties spent a portion of his teenage years in Southern Taiwan, herping and collecting snakes for a hobby. While he assured me that my Taiwan Beauty will make an excellent pet, he was very surprised to hear about a tame Ptyas mucosa, because in his (considerable) experience, this species is very nervous and bitchy. Guess I'm lucky that way

Thanks for sharing your experience, Terry! I, too, totally groove on the kids' excitement (if I may use this slioghtly dated expression). One of the highlights of the show is when I ask them to share their snake stories. Apart from the usual "Ah wuz ridin' in Dayud's car, an' we saw this snayuk crossin' the road", sometimes there are real gems, such as observations of feeding and shedding. My fave so far is the one where a bunch of kids on kitchen duty discovered a large Protobothrops mucrosquamatus in the food cart they were pushing back to their classroom (the kids eat in the classrooms). Luckily, the teachers present swept the snake into a bucket and took it into the forest out back. Stuff like this is certainly something to get up early for!

By the way, here's Mr. Ptyas mucosa in all his glory, for those of you who come here to see snakes instead of snot noses.





What? A snake in a tank? In the home of the man who used to sneer at deli cup herpers, the man with the motto "As soon as there's glass between me and a snake, I completely lose interest in the animal"? Well.....keeping snakes is really something I always found as boring as keeping pet rocks. But the mucosa was only on loan for three of my shows from the Taiwan University Herp Department, and suddenly I was booked for the entire winter, and I can't very well drive across the bloody island to borrow a serpent from them every time I give a talk, so I need to grow my own, in a manner of speaking. After explaining the situation to the Herp Dept guys, they were so kind as to give me the snake. So now I'm the proud keeper of two actual live snakes! Why two? Oh....you see, my office has two tanks - a large one, which now houses the mucosa, and a small one. They used to function as winter homes for a few of my lowland Nepenthes (tropical pitcher plants), namely those who didn't like to spend the chilly North Taiwan winter outside in the shadehouse with their highland buddies. But one day I had sold all the lowlanders, and the tanks were empty. And since you can't very well stand on one leg, I thought that I might as well get a snake for the smaller tank, too. I reached out to the herping community, and soon was presented with a very beautiful, very young (and very illegal, as it's a protected species you're not supposed to keep) Orthriophis taeniurus friesi, aka Taiwan Beauty Snake. A week with these animals, and I can already see myself end up like my friend Mr Liu who has one hundred and twenty snakes from all over the world lining the walls of his 10 x 12 foot bedroom (he sleeps on the floor). I just love ratsnakes, and it's such a joy to learn all about how to take care of them, to handle them, and to see them gradually lose their fear as they venture further and further out of their hides in exploration of their enclosures. But that's a topic for another forum, I guess. What's good? kingsnake.com?

Oh, and we also have two other new pets 一鼠 and 來寶, aka Two White Mice. They were intended to serve as live food for the snakes.....but when we brought them home from the snake shop Saturday night, my wife and the kids suddenly recoiled in horror at the thought of a actually chucking these fuzzy little cuties alive into the maws of the scaly monstrosities, so they were pardoned and their status elevated from MeatPatty to BelovedPet, and now they're munching on the finest Australian oatmeal all day and waiting for their large chalet with gym and wet bar that we're going to buy for them tomorrow. As for the hungry snakes - they'll have to make do with frozen mice henceforth.

Thank God for modern refrigeration technology.

PS: Yes, there's a hide and a heat source in the tank. I just took them out for the photos. And yes, I'll get rid of the sand an replace it with more appropriate substrate. And YES, I will get rocks and wood to furnish the tank! Sheeesh......snake keepers - really!

OK, Hans,,, You're scaring me... Getting a little paranoid are we???
(Don’t try to second guess the judgmental “anal retentives” on a forum. They will always find reason to eek their way out of the woodwork when it suits them.)

When you first showed the pics of Ptyas, I suspected it was one of those rare, trusted, “manned” animals. (If not, these things have a way of “sorting themselves out”! ); a good choice for a visual.
,
Kudos again for giving up your own time, money, and energy to reach the kids.
Bill

Wut?!
That's fantastic. Hope you told them how fortunate they are to see stuff like that. The most nature we saw at school when I was a kid was the occasional rabbit poo carried into the classroom by someone's shoe.

Wow amazing, the importance of wildlife such as snakes often escapes people, but such an educational experience for those kids must be amazing!

Goodjob,

Cheer, David

UPDATE: Started my seven-day, fourteen-talk run at Bali Elementary School (Taipei County) today. Another batch of satisfied customers!

Their vice principal told to me today that they're really glad to have someone to teach the kids about snakes and snake IDs: from Spring to Fall, they catch up to three snakes on the school grounds per week and hand them to the fire department who then take them to some remote place in the woods. If that were not unusual enough - half of the snakes are Naja atra, a species that is pretty rare in the National Park where I live, but obviously quite abundant over there in the paddy fields and bamboo plantations surrounding the school, just fifteen miles from my house. They promised to call me every time they catch a particularly large cobra as soon as snake season comes around. How cool is that? I've been searching high and low for these snakes for a year now, with only two (live) sightings and no photos to show for - and now I have a whole school catch them for me

Good work...
B
PS. Many kids are gesturing with their fingers. I get lots of finger gestures after speaking with kids too, but they are not smiling and they use their middle fingers????
I guess its a local idiomatic way of saying "Thanks".

Very cool. Brings back memories...

I used to teach elementary school..then retired. I used animals a lot, especially herps. The kids love to work with live animals and anything hands-on. I did a lot of photo presentations too, and I would make one suggestion. I would always pull the shades and make the room darker, especially near the screen, and the pics would show up better.

Your audience looks spellbound...LOL! Congrats on a job well done...

PS: Nice ratsnake too.

Terry

Thanks, Bill and Terry! I always pull the drapes and kill the lights for the photoshow, but illuminate the room again for the show&tell bits and the post-gig photo op.

I received two REALLY cute thank-you notes today...hilarious (think "fat bespectacled stickman with suspenders, glasses, and snake on arm"). I'll photograph and show them soon. Also, yesterday this little seven-year old girl who hadn't said anything during the show came up, hugged me and said "Teacher, I REALLY like your class!!!". Major awwwww-someness!

UPDATE: The media are taking note. Two cable news stations have reported so far, one more to come tomorrow, and Taiwans second-largest newspaper ran a piece on the classes today. Only in the local section for Taipei County, but it's a start.

Happy Christmas from (relatively) Christmas-free Taiwan!

UPDATE: One of the two news channels who visited the shows finally put their piece online. Pretty funny, even for non-Chinese speakers