Published
07/27/08

Handsss-on learning
Mike James
The Independent

RUSH — At the request of Ramey-Estep officials, names and hometowns of students are not used.

The boy gazing at the milk snake twined around his fingers had more in common with the striped serpent than he may have thought.

A student at Ramey-Estep High School, he came to the rural residential campus not through his own choosing but by the decisions of others. So did the snake.

The boy is one of dozens of troubled youths at the school, the products of abusive homes, crime-ridden environments and sometimes their own bad decisions. But juvenile delinquent is the label he and his schoolmates are saddled with.

The milk snake is a quiet, nonconfrontational animal that doesn’t look for trouble. But like all its kind, it endures disdain and aversion in a world that shudders at the sight of a serpent.

Bob Pulliam thinks snakes have gotten a bum rap, and he’d say the same about the students he teaches at Ramey-Estep.

Look past the preconceived notions about a snake — or a child from a troubled background — and you’ll see the potential for goodness.

For the snake it may be just the animal’s appetite for rats and other vermin. For the boy, it could be a hitherto-concealed appetite for learning.

Not that he planned it that way, but since he set up a herpetology lab at the school, Pulliam has been able to combine such social lessons with some hard biological studies.

The lab, which Pulliam believes is unique among area high schools, houses about 20 snakes of various species, from a tiny, pencil-sized eastern ringneck he found at his mother’s home to a python as big around as the business end of a baseball bat.

Students, both male and female, care for the snakes. They feed them and clean their cages. They study each species as it comes into the building and set up its cage or aquarium with the appropriate habitat.

That means branches for the ones that are arboreal, or tree-dwelling, and hidey-holes, like an empty tortoise shell, for the reclusive or nocturnal ones.

So, while they’re studying biology, they’re also learning lessons in nurturing and responsibility.

For some, just picking up the snakes is a lesson in confronting their inner demons. “I’m from a big city, sir. I never liked snakes, sir,” said one student. He admitted to being afraid the first time he handled one of the animals.

But he figures the snake may have been afraid, too, having just recently been living in the wild. “I look at it like this, sir. I was scared when I first came here.

“I can conquer my fear, sir,” he said.

It started about a year ago with one ball python, which since has been nicknamed Sparky.

Pulliam bought Sparky from a pet store and brought it to school more as a pet than anything else. But something about the snake intrigued the children, who took it on themselves to do herpetology research.

Pulliam’s second snake came to the lab by happenstance. A watersnake found at Ponderosa Elementary might otherwise have been tossed into the woods, but one of Ramey-Estep’s teachers with a daughter at Ponderosa heard about it.

The population has grown gradually since then. Among them:

—An eastern hognose that hisses and flares the vertebrae behind its head like a cobra.

—A black-and-white-banded California king snake.

—A Dumeril’s boa, native to Madagascar and probably the heaviest snake in the lab, although not the longest.

—An albino Burmese python, donated by a man in Arizona who heard about the school because he also came from a troubled background.

Monitoring temperature, humidity, lighting and habitat serve as lessons in ecology, while observations of the snakes’ sensory organs and hunting techniques enhance biology classes. Students use their math skills to track growth rates and study geography when they trace the native habitats of each species.

It’s interactive learning, ideal for the children who have learning disabilities, Pulliam said.

Handling the snakes is a big responsibility; it takes a certain knack to know how to hold the animals and keep them safe and comfortable. Students have to pass a test before they’re allowed to hold the snakes.

Pulliam hopes eventually to take snakes and students to other schools for presentations. It’s obvious the children take great pride in their animals, for one thing.

Also, working with the snakes teaches teamwork, responsibility and leadership, he said. “It sets an example of care, which a lot of these kids haven’t had.”

 

 

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