RATS VISIT CHILDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO HELP CELEBRATE YEAR OF THE RAT Local Rat Rescue Group Presents a Multimedia presentation on rats and an opportunity for students to learn about and meet pet rats.
Principal Alphonso Evans of the George W Childs School of Philadelphia has graciously invited Rat Chick Rat Rescue and Advocacy Group to present a multimedia presentation to the students about the Chinese New Year & Pet Rats. Students will learn about the Year of the Rat, real rat facts and myths, see funny rat videos, and even get to meet a live pet rat.
“We are very excited about this wonderful opportunity to celebrate The Chinese New Year at Childs School with my students,” Said President and Founder of Rat Chick Rat Rescue and Advocacy Group Maria Pandolfi. Maria is also an art teacher at the school. “This is an excellent opportunity to open up the minds of the students and staff about these sweet but misunderstood little creatures.”
“I teach people about rats to get them to understand what prejudice is. Once people meet the rats and learn about them, they learn that all their negative beliefs are false, and that's when I connect it to all other forms of prejudice. Once they learn how prejudice works the world will be a better place to live.”
The event is not open to the general public and will be held at George W Childs School 1541 South 17th Street, Philadelphia, PA on Thursday February 7th 2008.
Rat Chick Rat Rescue and Advocacy Group was formed in 2003 and is an All Volunteer Pennsylvania and Federal 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Corporation. Our goal is to find home for orphaned domestic rats and to advocate for all rats. Through education and fun we can make this world a better place for these wonderful, intelligent, clean and loving animals that are the brunt of prejudice. By educating the public about prejudice and the misconceptions surrounding these animals, maybe we can at least teach tolerance of them, and perhaps of each other!
-------------------------------------------- Update - RATS VISIT CHILDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO HELP CELEBRATE YEAR OF THE RAT
Principal Alphonso Evans of the George W Childs School of Philadelphia has graciously invited Rat Chick Rat Rescue and Advocacy Group to present a multimedia presentation to the students about the Chinese New Year & Pet Rats.
George W Childs Elementary can best be described as a quaint old intercity school with a diverse student body and a group of wonderful caring teachers and staff. Rat Chick Rat Rescue presented rat facts, happy rat videos and actual companion rats to over 600 students.
The event was a great success!
Mrs. Pandolfi opened each session telling the kids about Rat Chick Rat Rescue and how the group works together with each member having a viewpoint and making group decisions in an effort to teach the children about cooperation.
Mr. Doug then talked about his first companion rat that found him. Mom Rat, an escaped feeder breeder, was living under his house and feeding under the bird feeder in a community of birds, squirrels and doves. He emphasized the fact that the rat was accepted by the other animals and was part of the happy feeding group, and why as people we don’t do the same.
Mrs. Pandolfi then made the connection of preconception to prejudice and explained how animals don’t prejudge each other so why should humans. Based on my observations 90% of the students were hanging on every word. If half that many thought about it the next day we won the war on prejudice!
Next we showed the Rat Videos created by Doug B in a medley with some funny rat commercials. You can find the videos on Doug’s YouTube site at http://www.youtube.com/DougsJunk
The children loved the videos and were reading, dancing, laughing, eww-ing and aww-ing thought the entire presentation. Of all the comments I got for my videos on YouTube nothing compared to the approval I got form these children.
After the video the children got to pet Mrs. Pandolfi’s rat Buddy and Mr. Doug’s rats Sugar, Spice, Mittsey and Muffin. You would have thought we were handing out $100 bills as the children were fighting to be first in line to get to pet a rat.
It was at that moment that I realized that these children are starving for knowledge, any knowledge provided it was different or presented in a fun way. I was honored to have the opportunity to teach them something different and hope that that day will have a small impact on their lives.
