Educating Kids is the way to go.. they loved it

so this past week 3 of my snakes had perfect sheds.. one BIG 2000g+ girl and two smaller girls. needless to say.. they had perfect timing. elementary school was starting back and it just so happens my mom is a teacher.. so what do i do? throw the sheds out or use them to grow our community of herping? DUH i took them to her at school. The kids (1st grade) LOVED them.. everybody was trying to touch them and they were facinated that the one was bigger than they were. my mom and i took the opportunity while we had their atention to expose them to the world of snakes and tell them about how not all snakes are bad (and some really thought that.. thanks to their parents) but we told them they always need to let their parents know if they see one (we live in south ga in the marsh there are plenty of hots around). i went as far as telling them that ill save the sheds for the rest of the year and if they behave, at the end of the year i will give anybody interested their own snake shed. its not much but ill do whatever i can to cast a positive image on our community here rather than the stero-type public "snakes are dangerous" one. its my opinion that its hard to teach an old dog new tricks but in this case why not teach the kids and let them work on their parents for us haha

That is a very admiral thing to do! I think I can speak for us all, that we as a community NEED to educate people, especially the little ones of herping. I cannot wait to do this myself. I am working on become a teacher. Hopefully the higher ups will let me do some things like this in the classroom.

yea.. we do need to educate everybody we can about herping... cause in this fight we are wayyyy behind already.

I completely agree; it is our responsibility to support our hobby, and by far the best way to support the hobby and spread appreciation for our scaley friends is to visit schools and show kids not to be afraid. I have done a number of school visits as well as birthday party appearances and one on one opportunities for me to educate children. All of them have been successful and, though many are scared at first, it's amazing how many of them gain confidence and usually all of them want to hold the snakes.

That's the reason I love ball pythons and crested geckos. I love convincing someone who shivers at the thought of a snake to touch one. When they do, they get slightly intrigued, with more education they want to hold it, then the smiles come. And, really, who can hate a crested gecko?

First question..."Does it bite?" I love explaining where they come from, why the act the way they do, and to not be scared of all reptiles.

The biggest thing to remember when educating someone is to take it slow. You can't shove a burmese python in someones face and expect them to understand you. Most are incredibly nervous. It took me years to convince my Mom to touch one. She now appreciates their beauty from a distance.

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Originally Posted by eel588

The biggest thing to remember when educating someone is to take it slow. You can't shove a burmese python in someones face and expect them to understand you. Most are incredibly nervous. It took me years to convince my Mom to touch one. She now appreciates their beauty from a distance.

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Absolutely. Also take it slow with young snakes. If someone gets bit or even struck at in the process of trying to overcome a fear, they're going to be scared for life. Know your animals and be honest with yourself in regards to how much you can trust them. Once when my young cousins were visiting they were dying to hold some of the snakes and I couldn't resist letting them hold my boa, because she really is the coolest snake. However, she was very young at the time (now she's a big hunk of sweetness) and not accustomed to meeting new people, much less a large group of people passing her around. Luckily it was my little brother who got bit, and he took it very well (the next day I had him hold the boa again to show everyone that it was not a big deal, and so that he would not be afraid to hold the snake in the future). If one of the younger ones had gotten bit I could never forgive myself.

I remember I went to a little kids' reptile demonstration at a museum, and the lady held some type of boa and a tarantula - I only dimly rememeber but I know I was fascinated and bothered my mother to let me get a snake for years! Haha. Little kids are usually pretty open to that sort of thing if introduced right, all animals are awesome things to them.

Small world - I'm going to be giving my second annual genetics presentation to my mom's fourth grade class next week! I'm planning to take my lemon blast, bumblebee, mojave, spider, and pied. I'm also going to take my 2400g breeder normal and a 65g normal hatchling, to show them the difference just a few years can make on their sizes! They LOVED it last year, and I think I'm more excited than them to be invited back! :banana: