The look in the tiger’s eyes was one of mild boredom as he studied me from behind the heavy metal bars of the local zoo. In each hand I held a squirming first grader.
“I want to see the snakes!” yelled one of the boys.
All I had to do was teach these kids about tigers. Easy, right? What child is not interested in tigers?
Tears burned my eyes. This was my final test as a student teacher and I had failed. I’d never get my own classroom.
“Let go!” screamed the second boy, trying to pull out of my grasp.
“Please stop running off,” I begged. The tiger made a sound remarkably like a chuckle. Even the tiger was laughing at me! Enough! “See that tiger?” I snapped. “Last week a teacher got fed up with two boys and tossed them in with that tiger.” My students froze.
“D…did it eat them?” asked one.
“Of course not,” I said. “It adopted them.”
The boys pressed their faces to the bars. “What do they eat?” “Do they go to school?”
“They eat what tigers eat. And they’re learning to hunt.” I smiled at their eager faces and began to teach.
Kathleen Dougherty, from Scotts Valley California, is a writer who loves animals and is always amazed by their ability to teach us about ourselves.
© 2007 Kathleen Dougherty. Original for CCF (Dougherty grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).
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