{"id":215,"date":"2007-05-26T16:37:07","date_gmt":"2007-05-26T20:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=215"},"modified":"2008-08-05T13:02:18","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T17:02:18","slug":"not-all-animals-eat-out-of-a-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=215","title":{"rendered":"Not all animals eat out of a bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

A biology teacher attracted some attention recently when he showed students a boa<\/strike> python eating a rabbit. Live. It seems that a video of the demonstration shot by a student was posted to YouTube and the video may have been the spark that prompted this newspaper story<\/a>. School administrators were quoted in the story as disapproving of the feeding demonstration.<\/p>\n

A class was studying reptiles and a student brought in his pet boa<\/strike> python. Somehow it was suggested that anyone who was interested could watch the boa<\/strike> python being fed its usual meal: a live rabbit. The teacher arranged for the feeding to be held after school hours and attendance was voluntary. No one had to be there who didn’t want to be there. According to the story, the teacher even warned the squeamish to stay away.<\/p>\n

I’m not bashing the school admistrator’s religious beliefs, but rather his silly inanity in the statement: “The school uses lessons and curricula that teach respect for God’s creative handiwork, and this event does not support that.” Snakes eat rabbits. Welcome to nature. Snakes don’t shop at the market for cans of rabbit stew.<\/font><\/p>\n

If the teacher held the demonstration during school hours or made attendance mandatory in some way, then maybe that wouldn’t be a good thing. But that wasn’t the case here. If the teacher made a point of prolonging the feeding, thus torturing the rabbit in some way, I could see a reason to be upset. Maybe there was a chance that happened here, but I imagine such an action would have been mentioned in the story. If the snake owner usually fed the snake something else, like eggs or something that wasn’t all cute and fuzzy, but then this time made a big show out of using a rabbit, then I could see another reason for being upset. But the story stated that rabbits were the usual meal. In running through all of these what-ifs, I am trying to find some reason to sympathize with the administrator or anyone else who might have complained. Honestly, I don’t see what the problem is.<\/p>\n

I see all too often people seeming to think nature is all about sunshine, flowers and singing birds. Quite the opposite is the case. Showing curious kids “nature, red in tooth and claw” in a straightfoward manner seems like good science to me. Don’t overdramatize it or tell kids its fun to torture rabbits. Just show nature at its simplest. Snakes eat rabbits. What’s the big deal?<\/p>\n

edited later to add:<\/em> The original story had said the video had been taken down, so I hadn’t tried looking for it to view. However, it appears that a copy is still out there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have to admit that the teacher and other adults should have tried for a bit more calm from the kids. There’s a lot of hootin’ and hollerin’, which is what I’m sure the administrator and others are offended about, moreso than the snake being fed. There’s also the little comment towards the end where someone says, jokingly, that they’ll collect a dollar at the door.<\/p>\n

However, it was after school, and kids will be kids. I’m sure the teacher just wasn’t thinking about YouTube and how it would make the event appear to the casual observer, let alone someone in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A biology teacher attracted some attention recently when he showed students a boa python eating a rabbit. Live. It seems that a video of the demonstration shot by a student was posted to YouTube and the video may have been … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,3,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-3t","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1256,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1256","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":0},"title":"Recent stories of interest","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a story about a teacher who is trying to educate the general public concerning the realities of the teaching profession: \"Critics abound, so Collier teacher offers insight into his profession\". I definitely applaud his efforts and appreciate how it seems that he is genuinely respected. This story is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=231","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":1},"title":"Balanced presentation policy?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Alachua County School Board met recently and judging from this story, it was a fightin' affair from start to finish. All sorts of people were irritated about all sorts of things. Near the end of the story is an interesting subject sparked by an audience member's question. Another audience\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":976,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=976","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":2},"title":"And in other news …","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"News dump time. -- Should public school teachers have tenure? This story in the St. Petersburg Times points out how hard it is to fire a horrible teacher. What interests me about this story? Evolution, of course. When teachers earned workplace protections in the early 20th century, tenure was intended\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=976#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2775,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2775","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":3},"title":"Governor signs Religious Liberties bill into law","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida legislature presented Governor Rick Scott with the Religious Liberties bill on Monday and on Friday he signed it into law. There are two sections of the bill\u00c2\u00a0(link to pdf) that concern us here at Florida Citizens for Science. One of them is: A school district may not discriminate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/open-your-text-books-2-300x207.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":890,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=890","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":4},"title":"My Titanoboa beats your backward whale","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Jonathan, your backward whale is wimpy. Yes, you read that right. Wimpy! The University of Florida presents Titanoboa! Partial skeletons of a new giant, boa constrictor-like snake named \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Titanoboa\u00e2\u20ac\u009d found in Colombia by an international team of scientists and now at the University of Florida are estimated to be 42\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=890#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1044,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1044","url_meta":{"origin":215,"position":5},"title":"Creationism OK at Florida Virtual School?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Virtual School is a popular way to attend school in our state without having to step into a classroom. Students can take online courses to supplement their current traditional school workload, or students can take pretty much all of their courses online in the homeschooling tradition. 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