Gob smacked

[REDWOOD]

I keep a couple of hives at the back of a house where a retired school teacher and professor live and when I was taking the supers away today the lady of the house asked me to show them to her neighbours children who are aged 8 and ten, as a retired school teacher she started telling the children about bees and the kids replied "I know" so I started asking them a few questions and surprisingly they knew there was a queen, workers, drones, honey boxes, brood boxes, how bees swarm, why they swarm and baby bees are furry, did I miss something in school.

 

[Hivemaker.]

did I miss something in school.

Beekeeping by the sounds of it, it used to be taught in lots of schools, our local school kept bees until very recently.

 

[REDWOOD]

I did miss something then

 

[pargyle]

Beekeeping by the sounds of it, it used to be taught in lots of schools, our local school kept bees until very recently.

My father taught beekeeping and kept hives at a school where he taught rural studies before and just after WWII ... but rural studies seemed to get lost from the curriculum in the 1950's - pity.

I know a few schools these days who do mini-beasts projects and bees are included so I'm not really surprised ... I talk to a lot of children at the various events the association does - quite a few of them know a fair bit about bees and those that don't are generally fascinated. After the first question 'Do you get stung' you get some quite deep question ... Today I got 'How do they make wax' from one six year old who then insisted his mum buy him a block of beeswax ...

 

[Anduril]

My father taught beekeeping and kept hives at a school where he taught rural studies before and just after WWII ... but rural studies seemed to get lost from the curriculum in the 1950's - pity.

I know a few schools these days who do mini-beasts projects and bees are included so I'm not really surprised ... I talk to a lot of children at the various events the association does - quite a few of them know a fair bit about bees and those that don't are generally fascinated. After the first question 'Do you get stung' you get some quite deep question ... Today I got 'How do they make wax' from one six year old who then insisted his mum buy him a block of beeswax ...

Mini beasts, my son and daughter's junior school asked me to do a talk about bees last term. They wanted a half hour talk I gave them a one hour talk.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Beekeeping by the sounds of it, it used to be taught in lots of schools, our local school kept bees until very recently.

YEP, I LEARNT at School ,All Saints CoE Caddington it had only 17 kids in a two class room school for 5-14 year olds and those who could read where allowed to plant and tend the vegetables or play with Mr Lobb's (the caretaker) Bees in the garden, while they taught the others to read but that's was long long time ago in the 50s and i was the goody two shoes ink monitor but if you were naught you had to be the toilet monitor and empty the night soil buckets into the cesspit

As i lived in the school house, i also could play with the Bees in the school holidays as well, when i restarted beekeeping i found a few differences in approach from 1950s to 2000s

 

[Finno]

Mercy me! Didn't think anyone in uk would have had experience like that. Prize task in our school was to miss most of first class of the day by going to the well for water for teacher's yra.

 

[Finno]

Teacher's tea - bugger these mobile phone " keyboards"

 

[Davelin]

My father taught beekeeping and kept hives at a school where he taught rural studies before and just after WWII ... but rural studies seemed to get lost from the curriculum in the 1950's - pity.
.

Rural studies survived longer than that. It was still around in the eighties and the school I taught in then had hives and chickens.
It was the introduction of the national curriculum in 88 that killed it off.

Thank Mrs Thatcher and Mr Baker

 

[Jonathan]

Woodwork teacher taught me how to keep bees between 1976 and 1978. Built my first hive in the woodwork class and I kept bees with him right up to last month when he died aged 90. Happy days.

 

[oliver90owner]

Eight and ten, you say? They know more about bees and beekeeping than some on the forum, I reckon!

RAB

 

[Erichalfbee]

YEP, I LEARNT at School ,All Saints CoE Caddington but that's was long long time ago in the 50s

I went to a Catholic primary and all they taught was how to feel guilty!

 

[Hachi]

Mr Salt was my rural studies teacher a tall man with unruly bushy white hair. A great man. We had turkeys and poly tunnels. Loved it.

 

[Panteg]

There is (or certainly was last year) a beekeeping club at one of the secondary schools in Herefordshire run by an enthusiastic teacher/beekeeper. His answer to my question about Elf and Safety was that there weren’t any specific rules because nobody who wrote them had ever thought about beekeeping! Give that man a gold star!

 

[Tremyfro]

Our local primary school keeps bees. I think they have 4 hives. All the children know lots about bees and get the chance to go into the apiary. My grandchildren go there. They also have vegetable and flower gardens and are going to start a forestry area. Many primary schools these days make a huge effort to put the children in touch with nature.

 

[andycadman]

Rural Studies

Yes, Rural Studies was alive and well until the National Curriculum killed it of in the 1980's:http://www.andycadman.force9.co.uk/RuralStudiesBelperSchool.htm

 

[andycadman]

Bernard Salt

. . . Also met Bernard Salt at my school back in 1981 - Great Rural Studies teacher - He wrote a series of very popular Rural Science text books.

 

[alldigging]

One of our plot-holders used to teach horticulture at the boys school. He kept bees there. Many years ago though.

I think our biology teacher kept bees in the 'secret garden' at school.