Interpretation requested
Last week was "O" week in Edith's pre-K. As part of studying the letter "O" they watched a live-action video about an aquarium where the staff kept finding dead sharks floating in the deep sea tank when they arrived in the mornings and couldn't figure out why the sharks were dying. (Yes, I was a bit surprised that this was deemed pre-K appropriate, but what do I know?) Finally the staff staked the place out overnight and discovered that the blue-ringed octopus was squeezing the sharks to death.
So Edith tells us all about this in the evening on the way home from school. The next morning I mention it to Mr. Allan when dropping her off (in the guise of, "Hey, so this account of Edith's sounded wild--did I get this story right?).
Yes, said Mr. Allan, that was one fierce octopus. And, he said, the three girls in the class kept begging him to run the part where the octopus is caught squeezing a shark over and over again. Edith laughed and nodded. Meanwhile, said Mr. Allan, the boys covered their eyes and said they couldn't stand it. Torry covered his eyes and nodded.
Was this simply a small sample of kids whose reactions happened to break down along gender lines? Or does this one bear some gender analysis? Anyone?
6 comments:
holy cow - dying sharks? Guess "Science Friday" isn't what it used to be. Hmmm. the BOYS were scared? Talk about reversing the typical gender lines we have established. Maybe they were projecting? ;)
I can't get past a) showing videos at preschool and b) of DYING SHARKS? Is this a special dead animal progressive curriculum? What's next, Bambi?
PS. Also can't get over that she actually told you what happened in school. Who knows, there could be actual dead sharks in Julia's classroom and she might not let it slip
First of all, we avoid discussion of death at all costs, so wouldn't be so happy if this were shown in JSC's school.
second of all, she's scared by almost everything, so this would go over so poorly with her.
Hm-- Sam is scared by conflict but not by death, at least not of animals (or people he doesn't know)-- sad, maybe, but not scared. He does, however, get so upset about conflict and general high-arousal negative emotions that he refuses to watch videos he otherwise loves that have scary bits in them. That said, in my experience with preschoolers I can't say that either the stereotypical or the posited-here counterstereotypical pattern really holds.
Also: I too would be a bit freaked by this being shown at a preschool; not so much for the video aspect (short video of a feisty octopus is not the same as plopping kids in front of a video as a regular thing), but because of the death aspect-- esp. without ok'ing with parents first.
Gah-- sorry for the overlong comment.
We don't avoid talking about death--read a fairy tale that ends with the witch or dragon being vanquished or inspect a bug in the halogen lamp and there you are--but we try to pitch our conversations about it age-wise, as Edith's own questions and concerns suggest. Most recently she seeks assurance that people die when they're old, and we have agreed that most people usually die when they're old. At church they were asking the Sunday School kids to decorate a card for a child who was dying, and we Sunday School teachers agreed that we would simply say the child was sick and the card was to wish him well, leaving talk of death to parents' discretion. That's why I was a bit surprised about the dead sharks in class. On the other hand, that class is small and tight, and they have known the teachers and vice versa for several years now, and since the curriculum is derived from student interest, the teachers may have been going on their instincts about what this particular class was interested in and could handle. Edith is fascinated with nature studies right now, and death comes up readily there. Who was it who said, "All of nature is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and passive"?
Meanwhile, further conversation suggests that she liked that part of the video because she associates sharks with bad guys/evil/meanies, and in her mind this was a case of the underdog triumphing.
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