Nature-walks are part of our IEP meet. As part of one of our nature walks, we took the children to McRitchie reservoir. Asking the children afterwards what they felt about the walk, I was surprised to hear a handful of children mention "I felt scared about the monkeys".
On yet another trip to Pulau Ubin, I noticed that many of the children and facilitators alike were afraid of the many dogs lingering in the area, though the dogs were not remotely interested in us.
Why the fear? Is there a reason for the fear? Or is it simply conditioned in us?
My daughter is very fond of cats. She loves to go after the many cats that rest under our apartment block and nothing makes her day so much as petting a cat does. With this attitude, one day, she was playing in the playground, when two cats streaked past her, chasing and spitting at each other. With her fondness of cats, the child, no doubt even more excited by this lively display that her favorite animals were putting up, ran after them and tried to pet the cat that was hissing and spitting. Before I, who was sitting 20 meters away, could react, the tabby swiped once, then twice. The child did not understand the language of the swiping cat as an adult would. Too late, she received a scratch on her finger. She understood the language of cats then.
But as a parent, what was I to do? After putting the obligatory antiseptic, and ensuring (including a call to the emergency) that the scratch was not something very serious, I was faced with a dilemma. Would I have to advice her to not touch all cats until she grew old enough to understand them, or would I still encourage her to play with them as usual, but to exercise caution and to ensure that I shadow her more closely when she is around cats?
We sensibly chose the second option, and I am glad to say that Anjali is once again on friendly terms with cats.
The Mother has written
"... if you leave an animal in its normal state, far from man, it obeys the spirit of the species, it has a very sure instinct and it will never commit any stupidities. But if you take it and keep it with you, it loses its instinct, and it is then you who must look after it, for it no longer knows what should or should not be done. "
We are afraid of animals because we have invaded their space, making them aggressive. The monkeys in McRitchie reservoir had become aggressive because we had made them so, first pampering them with food and them shooing them away when they wished the food to be given to them. Perhaps, if we explain to our children that animals are not toys to amuse ourselves with, but beings to be treated with love and respect, there can be a genuine coexistence and love between people and animals in the forthcoming generation?
But a day may yet come when the tiger crouches and leaps no more in the dangerous heart of the forest,
As the mammoth shakes no more the plains of Asia;
Still then shall the beautiful wild deer drink from the coolness of great pools in the leaves’ shadow.
The mighty perish in their might;
The slain survive the slayer.
-- Kiruthika
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