虫ーBugs
Almost daily this summer, a child approaches me with two hands clasped over each other, concealing some insect that they’ve found on the playground. The first thing I saw children doing on my first day of teaching was actually catching cicadas with butterfly nets. This year, when the semi (cicadas) congregated in the cherry blossoms, I watched the children catch dozens, keep them in plastic terrariums for a day, then release them the next day and watch them fly back into the trees.
In August, I found children huddled around a cardboard box just outside the 5-year classroom door. Apparently, a man who works at a nearby recycle shop stumbled on a colony of kabutomushi (rhinoceros beetles), and delivered about two dozen of them in a box as a gift to the nursery school. For the next month, children kept them in small terrariums, tending to them by spraying water on the soil daily, and keeping them stocked with beetle food, actual packets of food you can buy in general stores (they look like packages of jelly candy) and cabbage. The 5-year teacher planned time to share books about beetles and other insects, and helped students make posters about them and the cicadas. The language from these projects found its way into the children’s daily conversation and journals (how I learned the word ‘kabutomushi’ was from asking children what animals they liked that week).
Of other insects, I’ve seen kids with praying mantises and walking sticks bigger than their hands, butterflies, roly polies, dragonflies, and lightning bugs. The size of most of these insects (roly polies excluded) make them incredibly fascinating creatures for children to observe and interact with. It’s something I can’t quite find an equal comparison to from my own childhood.
Japan is also home to many dangerous insects, such as centipedes, spiders, and hornets, all of which in their giant forms are highly venomous, requiring immediate attention if a child is bitten or stung. Teachers have told me that about once a year, they, or the children, will find a mukade, giant centipede, on the playground. Just this week I saw all the 4 year students outside their classroom because a hornet had flown in through a window. The principal, armed with a spray can and a dustpan, managed to shoo him back out.
But the risk of finding a mukade doesn’t stop teachers from allowing children to collect insects, and the possibility of a hornet flying into the classroom doesn’t stop them from opening the windows. The fear for the worse doesn’t keep them from enjoying the best. It would be a worse crime to keep children from enjoying the outdoors, even if in the name of protecting them from it. Thinking about this and the ways in which people attempt to protect children reminded me of an Eisenhower quote I had to look up to remember, ”we must not destroy from within what we are trying to defend from without”. Whether the threat from without is an insect, or television, or a speech, this seems like reasonable advice for anyone responsible for raising children.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Daniel 2 Daniel: Taiwan to Japan: Read your good post at Jonah F’s blog on neuroscience of reading vs screening….. good comments, sir! and good link, too. Thanks for heads up on that. Wonder if you have ever considered this idea pro or con: that we might need or benefit from , later, maybe sooner than later, for a new word or term for reading on screens in order to help study the differences in neuroscience and psychology from reading on paper or through a screen, not that one is better or worse, mind you, just different. What’s your take on this? Email me at danbloom@gmail.com
I am online 24/7/365 from my cave in southern Taiwan, which is actually the southernmost prefecture of Japan, although most people don’t know this. (I lived in Tokyo for 5 years 1991 t0 96, worked for Yomiuri Daily newspaper there. Loved it. Time of my life. I still speak nihongo everyday here in Taiwan, too. Ask me why?)
Cheers
Danny Dan Daniel [BLOOM]
1949-2032
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:45 am
Man, this really makes me think about USA schools, and friends I have who are teachers. Were I ever to have kids, it sounds like I’d be wanting to move to Japan.
March 17th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Your blog has inspired me! I teach preschool at a private school and it depresses me to no end how little we let children simply be children. It’s no wonder Japanese children have more patience and focus than American children.
March 17th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
It blows my mind — not even the children part, but the fact that the neighborhood recycling man actually thought past his nose to bring bugs that he found to the school to further the children’s education?! The little effort of scooping the bugs up, placing them in a box, and then finding time to drop them off to the preschool would never in a million years cross the minds of someone here (Louisiana, USA)—he woud most likely see the bugs, squish ‘em, and then sweep them out of the door, nevermind that they could have brought joy and learning to the school down the street.
It seems like many people where you are seem to frequently consider others in their thoughts, as opposed to the frequent narcissim I see over here. The whole town seems genuinely interested in furthering their kids’ education, which probably makes it easier for them to succeed. (And over here we wonder why a child couldn’t care less about his schoolwork whenever he has a family back home that -also- feels that way? Pfft.)
Kudos to these guys:)
(..and I won’t even comment too much on the whole ‘kids get stung sometimes’ info, because down here, if a child were to be stung on the school’s watch, that mother would make sure there were no more outings for anyone…-and- she’d probably take ridiculous legal action. Oi.)
March 18th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
“The fear for the worse doesn’t keep them from enjoying the best.”
This is a fantastic line! We must experience the world with our kids and teach them to live in it. Not try to lock them up, saran wrap and sterilize everything. Keep blogging!