“Why isn’t there an animal alive under my rule?”
A teacher tells Kek Mama what she is experiencing. This time: Teacher Maud (34) teaches group 3.
“Look, teacher”, says Alexandra. She is standing in front of me with a water bowl. “It contains eggs from triops.” “What do you say?” I ask. “Tri-ops,” says Alexandra. “What are those?” I ask. “A kind of crayfish,” she says. “I got them from my father. It has an aquarium.” She shows me a picture of two tiny critters. One is bright green, the other bright orange. Alexandra’s classmates come to look curiously. Soon everyone knows that triops exist.
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Highly intelligent
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Alexandra asks if the eggs are allowed in our school aquarium. I think that’s excellent. Maybe this will make Alexandra want to go to school. So far she hasn’t. She cries a lot and does not connect with the other children. That’s because she’s gifted, she has an IQ of 160. She’s also a bit melancholy because of that. Gifted people think further than others and therefore sometimes have difficulty accepting reality.
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I’ve been on a house call with her because I feel like she’s eluding us. Once there I also met her twin brothers, who are just retarded. They both have an IQ of 80, together the same as their sister. Because of this special situation, their dear parents sometimes have their hands in their hair.
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7x the best animal outings for children >
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eggs
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Alexandra echoes what she learned from her father. “Teacher, the eggs will hatch within two days. In water between 16 and 24 degrees. And after that, they live between 20 and 80 days. They have at least 35 legs. They have been around for 351 million years.”
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I’m going to wash this little pig, I decide. We get the aquarium, pour water into it from the kettle until it is 18 degrees according to the thermometer. That afternoon I buy a heat lamp on Marktplaats. The class pot is empty, so I pay myself. Alexandra now comes to school happy and goes straight to the triops as soon as she enters the class. Her prestige in class is rising.
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But the experiment goes wrong. The eggs don’t hatch. The water gets dirty. Alexandra’s father doesn’t know why. And according to Alexandra’s mother, her daughter has sleepless nights because of it. She cries again when she comes to school.
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Biology
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I decide to make a new start for Alexandra with stick insects. They are stronger than triops, and they multiply misfortune. A new disappointment follows: the stick insects are also dying. I’m now referring to myself. Why don’t triops and stick insects survive under my rule? With the class we bury the branches in the courtyard of the school. In a box with drawings.
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“With the class we bury the branches in the courtyard of the school.”
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Now I decide for sharper artillery: turtles! They get very old. I’ve never heard of a dead turtle. I buy three on Marktplaats. The class calls them Papa, Mama and Baby. They are again led by Alexandra. And they live! For a very long time, I expect.
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Alexandra is flourishing. In the meantime, it is already expected among the teachers that Alexandra will go to the gymnasium after group 6. I can already predict her favorite subject: biology.
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This article can be found in Kek Mama 02-2022.
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More stories from The Teacher? Read the previous episodes here.
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