LOL. Apparently my friend's 12yo son posts here.

[Midlodemocrat]

He's been calling her 'Hitler' for the last week. :rofl:

Science teacher assigned a project whereby each kid needs to collect 20 bugs, kill them, (by putting them in a jar with a cotton ball soaked in either nail polish remover or ammonia) and then they need to mount them on foam core.

Friend's son is probably going to end up a vet. Loves, loves, loves any and all kinds of creatures, (except ants, probably because he's heard his mother say 'I HATE THESE FUCKING ANTS' for his entire life and it has scarred him. In fact, he used to kill them with a hammer in the driveway and it got so bad that they had to get the driveway repaved. LOL, but I digress)

Anyone friend's son is having a terrible time with the 'killing jar', (which is actually what said gas chamber is called on the project sheet) and started to call his mom Hitler because she was doing the killing while he did something else.


Personally, I think a rather reasonable compromise would be to take a picture of each bug and mount it. I mean, who wants to kill a butterfly?

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Nice post, Asher welcome wagon lady.

:P

[Midlodemocrat]

3. He's ADORABLE!!!!!!

:hide:

:rofl:

Disclaimer: I did NOT get kicked out of a school today. Probably because I didn't leave the house. Too much to do. Demanding (read psycho) client.

[malta blue]

2. that is so funny

:rofl:

I call Little MB "Noriega" all the time. She asked me a couple of days ago what I was talking about and I sent her to the google....

[applegrove]

4. Is it just me ... I don't find that very funny. I guess that makes me a party pooper.

[Midlodemocrat]

5. Don't find what funny? The fact that he's calling his mother Hitler

or the project?

Because we don't like the project either. Him calling his mother Hitler, though, that's killing me.

[applegrove]

8. The whole idea that there is a gas chamber and he calls his mother hitler gets to me.

I'm oversensitive in that area I know. Yes the project sounds a little creepy too. I once had to kill a whole bunch of wildflowers for a science project. That didn't bother me.

[Midlodemocrat]

9. I think it's his only frame of reference.

He had been to the Holocaust museum here this summer.

In no way is he comparing what happened in WWII to what they are doing. He's just a particularly gentle little soul who doesn't like to hurt anything.

[applegrove]

23. He sounds cute.

[Midlodemocrat]

30. He really is a darling. I've never seen a child who is so enamored

with animals of all stripes. Usually you get some that like reptiles, like fish, like dogs. This little guy loves all animals.

Except ants. :rofl:

[bertha katzenengel]

6. What a bullshit fucking assignment.

Kill, Child, Kill!!

[Midlodemocrat]

7. I know. There are quite a few girls who are freaked by it.

And, this little guy is an amazingly gentle spirit. He is really having a hard time with the whole 'killing jar' thing. I initially thought that the assignment, when my friend told me about it, was to collect dead bugs, which although icky isn't a big deal.

No idea that the children would have to kill the creatures. It's awful.

My point is as well, what is the purpose of this lesson? Couldn't the same thing be achieved by purchasing some of those already dead bugs off the internet or having the kids take pictures?

[bertha katzenengel]

10. What would be the consequences if a child refused?

Backed by the parents, of course.

[Midlodemocrat]

11. Well, from what I have heard through the grapevine

this particular teacher has a file on him 3 inches thick. Seeing as how the new middle school needed a soccer coach and he was tapped, I'm guessing that the kid would get an 'F' for the project.

BabyMidlo doesn't have to do it; different level in science, but if she did, we'd take pics and take the bad grade. Cripes people, it's fucking middle school. Suck up the bad grade if your child is upset.

[Sequoia]

12. I certainly wouldn't want my child to do that.

What sort of lesson is that teacher giving to those kids by having them kill. Oh, it's just bugs...oh, it's just a frog...oh, it's not an American person. Start 'em young.

[Midlodemocrat]

13. Me neither. Fortunately, she has a different teacher.

She had a sleepover on Friday with five friends and four of them have this guy. I suggested to them that they should ask if they could take pics instead, but haven't heard anything.

One of the bugs is a butterfly for cryin' out loud!!!!! A Monarch butterfly!

And, a praying mantis, which I thought was still on the endangered bug list, but apparently I was wrong.

[TZ]

18. I thought it was illegal to kill a praying mantis

Not because its endangered per se, but because of how helpful it is in eating truly bad bugs.
Maybe thats just Maryland...

[Sequoia]

22. That's pathetic. Can't the kids get together with their parents and stop it.

How old is this teacher anyway? A butterfly, good lord have mercy.

[XemaSab]

29. Tell him to kill a cabbage white

Do the world a favor. :P

[SOteric]

14. I hope he never decides to pursue a career

as a chef. He really wouldn't like the butchery exam, and they won't let Hitler do it for him.

[Blue Diadem]

15. Oh gosh, I remember when my kids had to do that.

Those kill jars are not always a quick death, some of the bugs twitch and jerk around, it's pretty awful.

Our family was just talking about those bug collections the other day while we were out on the patio and were interrupted by gigantic horse flies. Tennis or badminton rackets are good for keeping horse flies away. Anyway, it brought back memories of one of my daughter's friends being chased down a creek bed and bitten by a horse fly while they were doing their bug collections. That poor girl had a hole in her shoulder/back.

I have heard you can freeze some bugs, as long as they aren't the bugs that hibernate in the cold. I'm not sure what's worse, killing the bugs or picking up their dead yucky bodies and putting pins through them.

[flvegan]

16. Maybe next year it will be cats.

Guess it's all a matter of what the teacher deems important enough to him/herself to allow to live.

[underpants]

17. Well... you know...

someone really DOES need to talk to her about that haircut

I'm not saying I'm just saying :shrug:

[Rosie1223]

20. And a quick wax

would get rid of the little moustache quite easily.

[Dangerously Amused]

19. I'm pretty sure my kid would refuse, and I'd back him up 100%.

And if he got a bad grade because of it, I would raise holy hell. Be a good "hands-on" lesson in democracy if nothing else; maybe he could get extra credit for that in his social studies class to offset the bad science grade, lol.

Kind of stupid that they are all killing the same bugs, anyway. Why does the class need to see thirty dead Monarch butterflies?

[Forkboy]

21. Are they going to dissect a kitten next semester?

"killng jar"? :wtf:

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Well ok, I'm laughing...but still, this is a strange, strange sounding class. :)

[supernova]

24. Killing jar

Is the actual entomology term for a jar wherein you kill insects for further study. Hate to be pedantic here, but it's the truth. Not you Midlo, but others in the thread seem to be surprised by the term. This is a classic science lesson. Am I the only one in the Lounge who had to do this in school too?

The idea is that you want to kill them quickly so they have as little damage as possible.

That said, the little guy is quick witted. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_jar

[Midlodemocrat]

25. The weird thing is the cicada I trapped for him didn't die

after three days in the killing jar. I'm pretty sure that is what completely freaked him out.

[LeftyMom]

26. Undead cicadas would creep me out too.

Hell, regular cicadas creep me out.

[XemaSab]

31. I had to do this in 5th grade

Bullshit then; bullshit now.

If this was mike_c's entymology class I wouldn't have a problem with it, but at that age: not cool.

[cboy4]

27. See what you've done?

[XemaSab]

28. Tell him if he doesn't like killing things not to do anything biology related

I got a D in zoology partly because the dissections were SO appalling. :o