Wednesday, 11 July 2018
Saving a Bee and the Magic of the Moment
Yesterday I was in the nursery in the morning. In amongst all the seeming chaos of new children who are like babies compared to the older ones, an assembly practice in the hall and lots of ball related arguments, I noticed one of the boys trying to squash a bee that was resting on some blue fabric. I had seen it there earlier and it had been there quite a while. I rushed over to stop him from killing it, and explained that it was just having a rest and that he should just watch it to see what it did. We watched for a little while, then I remembered the sugar water thing-where you can revive a poorly bee by giving it a little. In the meanwhile, another child had become interested, and he went inside to ask an adult to get me some of the sugar water. I put a little on my finger and the bee had a drink. It then crawled onto my finger. A girl had also become interested in the bee. The two boys went off to play with balls, and the girl follwed me into the garden. We put the bee on a Jasmine flower. It fell off though, so I gave it some more of the water. The girl was so interested and concerned for the bee. After a little while I put it down near some flowers. It sat for a moment, then flew off! We were both so excited! It is these little moments that I love about teaching. They can happen in any age group and any setting, and, although they can contribute to the never ending assessment of children, they are more important than that. They are the moments that are remembered as a shared experience which emotionally affects all involved as human beings. They can't be planned for, though they can be helped by good provision. I was telling the nursery teacher what happened this morning, and she asked whether I got any pictures. No! If I had left the situation to get an iPad or ask another adult for one, the moment would be gone. The pictures are in my mind though and, hopefully in the minds of the children involved.
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3 comments:
This is a wonderful post. I feel sure that if children were taught about nature the world would be a better place.
We learnt the names of all the trees and wild flowers when I was at school many moons ago, we always had a nature table and I don't think this is as important in schools now.
Briony
x
and this is why you are such a valued teacher in the great scope of things. Such a sweet thing to have happened, lucky children, lucky bee!
You did a very good and important thing here.
This is my favorite post of yours so far--(I'm not reading in order, just jumping around on your blog)--
even though I LOVE all the photos of your art and dolls.
Your event reminds me:
One day a friend and I saw a dead, big & beautiful bumble bee on a walking path.
I had a couple of my little red-hair dolls with me, and they have an interest in funerals for tiny things (godknows why),
so we all stopped so they could bury the bee at the edge of the path.
As we were preparing to do this, however, a very drunk young man came up and asked what we were doing.
We told him, and he started talking and talking--not very coherently, sometimes belligerently, but he seemed attracted to/interested in the dead bee.
I asked him if he would like to take the bee to bury himself,
and he said yes!
So we handed him the bee, which he received carefully--reverently?--on his open palm.
He was so drunk, I thought perhaps I should offer a suggestion of what to do next:
I said,"You could just find a patch of flowers to put the bee in."
We walked on, and the last I saw of him, he was walking off, very slowly, looking at his palm.
This felt like an important encounter, somehow.
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