This amazing story was in today's edition of the newsletter I received from the Kortright Conservation Centre, just north of Toronto [GTA is the Greater Toronto Area]. It's what we in the field call a *teachable moment*, lol, truly unforgettable! :love: :
Class Sees Bambi
Toronto and Region Conservation provides almost 100 different and unique programs to school classes throughout the GTA. These are offered in the out-of-doors and come designed to fit the curriculum requirements of the visiting classroom teacher. But, once in a while, some lucky class gets a taste of environmental education that is completely unscripted, unrehearsed and absolutely memorable.
Such an event occurred last week when a grade four class from Derry Down Public School visited Kortright. The 25 students were enrolled in the popular "Habitats and Communities" program. It was a particularly hot steamy day so their guide thoughtfully was giving them a break from the heat by passing through the deeply-shaded cool of the sugar bush. Almost at the top of the hill, six feet to the right of the path they discovered a fawn. The excitement spread down the line of students and they quietly and slowly crept forward for a better look. The whole class intuitively formed a semi-circle eight feet from the fawn and stood like statues.
The fawn must have been warned by its mother not to move because it lay there in the dead leaves of the forest floor, stiffly, hardly taking a breath.
Every student looked in the big brown eyes of that fawn and the fawn looked back.
Three minutes passed and the fawn slowly stretched to its feet and calmly walked away under the maple syrup lines into the forest. The students didn't move until it was completely out of sight.
What a great report those students will be able to make about their field trip to the Kortright Centre. I wonder how many of them will be encouraged to learn a little more about White-tailed Deer in Ontario? Which ones will become advocates for the environment because of that look they got from the fawn?
