Don’t feel too sorry for Monty, despite her educational plight.
She’s transferred from a couple of schools, most recently from Cape Girardeau Central Middle School, where she shared a room with sixth-graders.
She’s currently in her fourth year of fourth grade in Rhonda Young’s class.
Good news: She’s adept at making friends.
Monty is a 4-foot ball python Young has had as a classroom companion for nearly 18 years. And Monty has plenty of live company in her corner, unlike the stuffed likes of a koala bear, caterpillar, Clifford, Arthur and a host of Dr. Seuss characters also in the room.
In nearby aquariums are Skittles the gecko; Desperado, a 3-inch Madagascar hissing cockroach; and Charlotte, a Chilean rose tarantula.
Monty is free to roam at times. Young sets her on the floor and allows her to find a warm spot among the children gathered and sitting. She’s not a wiggler.
“She’s a lap dog with no legs,” Young said about Monty, who was hanging around the neck of former student Brooke Kimberley, tongue flicking around her ear.
Kimberley, a senior from Cape Girardeau Central High School who was visiting the school last week, was looking in on an old friend who once entertained her.
Young purchased Monty from a pet store 18 years ago, for a reason she can’t explain, at less than a foot in length.
“She’s been in the hands of kids ever since,” Young said.
Young said ball pythons “ball up” when they don’t want to be bothered.
“She’s never done that,” Young said about Monty, obviously a people python.
“She’s been stuck, dropped, poked, put in a desk, you name it,” Young said. “Stuck” was once behind the interactive whiteboard on one of the walls.
Young placed Monty on the floor, and she slithered toward San Srikant, one of her two designated care keepers for the week, flicking her sensitive tongue at Srikant’s Nike. Srikant was in charge of Monty’s daily water for the week along with Hunter Jones, while Jackson Seabaugh, who said he had 13 pets at home at one point, serves as Young’s “expert,” overseeing the caretakers who are rotated weekly.
“She’s been the light of many kids’ lives and my life, too,” Young said. “She has been loved on by more kids. Some of the kids I started out with when I first got her are married and have kids of their own.”
Young considers Monty and the rest of her pets educational ambassadors. She first got Monty while teaching at Cape Christian School, then brought her along when she made the move to the public schools, although she waited until her second year.
Kimberley said she once was scared of snakes but changed her thinking through regular visits to Young’s room years earlier to see Monty.
“That’s why I have them, because so many people are scared of a spider or snake, and to me, it’s kind of desensitizing,” Young said. “If you’re in a situation where it’s non-threatening, and you’re learning about it, little by little, I’ve seen people get over those fears and even get one as a pet themselves.”
She also likes them because they’re low-maintenance.
“They don’t smell; they don’t make noise; you can go away and leave them for two weeks,” Young said, adding anything with fur is high-maintenance.
And feeding days are interesting, both educational and entertaining when a live mouse or frozen small rat is on the menu.
Without prompting, Charlotte displayed how educational moments can arise when Young pulled a fresh replica of the tarantula out of its terrarium.
The spider had molted, leaving a furry ball complete with eyes, legs and pincers. Young explained to her students that all spiders go through the process, comparing it to a snake shedding.
“She outgrows her clothes, just like you outgrow your clothes. Right?” Young said, holding the Charlotte look-
alike in her palm. “These are the clothes she outgrew.”
The real Charlotte was crawling up Young’s arm. She’s had the spider for three years and never has been bitten, but she’s the only one allowed to handle Charlotte.
“The tarantula, we don’t do anything with it, because if we drop it, the guts spill out, and it basically explodes everywhere,” Dennis Miller said, explaining the house rules.
Young is not alone in using animals as learning tools.
At Chaffee Elementary School, second-year teachers Alex Parker and Chelsea Nesbit each introduced a bearded dragon to their room this year.
Thorn resides in a glass enclosure among Parker’s third- and fourth-graders for science and social studies, and he has others visit in the morning and after school.
He also has two hermit crabs, Red and Silver.
Parker has a human skeleton named “Jack” in his room and uses wild turkey feet for hall passes. It’s all part of his effort to expose students to as much as possible.
“Besides home, this is the place they’re here most,” Parker said. “We try to make it like a second home and keep them engaged. If Thorn helps keep them engaged, I’ll use Thorn. If the hermit crabs keep them engaged, I’ll use the hermit crabs — whatever I have to do to keep them engaged and help them learn.”
Thorn and Rowdy, Nesbit’s bearded dragon, are both 3 months old but eventually will reach about 2 feet in length. Nesbit researched the animals after a failed experiment with a turtle, Pig — a name assigned by her students — last year. Pig smelled and was high-maintenance.
“I actually found an article online about the best kind of class pets, and I saw that bearded dragons were because when they’re older, they just kind of sit on the kids, and they can just hold them, and they’re a little easier to take care of,” Nesbit said, noting the animal can be left on its own during periods when school is not in session.
She assigns the caretaker duties to her students but took care of the naming this time. Rowdy was a name dear to her after playing the role of mascot Rowdy the Redhawk for four years while attending Southeast Missouri State University.
At Jefferson Elementary School in Cape Girardeau, second-grade teacher Stacy Stapleton has weekly visitors, bringing her dogs Rhoda and Millie to her classroom every Friday. It’s a practice she’s been doing for more than eight years. It started off reward-oriented but has evolved.
“It’s really pretty simple,” Stapleton said. “They just lay around the room all day. The kids can love on them.”
Rhoda and Millie are rescue dogs and open doors for her to talk about pet adoption and responsibilities of ownership, such as taking them to a veterinarian and for walks, as well as cleaning up their messes.
“They think that’s disgusting, but it’s part of owning a dog,” Stapleton said. “We get over it. We pick it up. It’s better than stepping into it.”
She said the weekly visits also provide conversation the students can take home about their school day.
They might talk about how Millie likes to sit in Stapleton’s seat or how Rhoda barks when they clap their hands while singing.
“They just think that’s hilarious,” Stapleton said. And Millie and Rhoda enjoy the visits.
“They love it,” Stapleton said. “They know when it’s Friday. They just sit in the house and just wait for me to get ready and get into the car and go. But they definitely know what day of the week it is. It’s like they have a little watch.”
jbreer@semissourian.com
(573) 388-3629
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.