THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994 TAG: 9406080186
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940610 LENGTH: Medium
A wild orphan bird, Mr. Peeps has grown up among the menagerie that lives in the seventh-grade life science classroom of Pat Berson. All 112 students she teaches at Landstown Middle School have met Mr. Peeps, the snapping turtle, bunny, parrot, guinea pig, iguana and assorted fish who keep her company during the school day.
{REST} ``Having the animals here creates an interest and excitement, and a respect for living things,'' said Berson, 47. ``The students learn how to properly care for them, and they see how much work it is.''
All of the pets who live in her classroom have been given to Berson ``by families who get them, then see that they're more trouble than they bargained for,'' she said. She'll accept just about any animal except snakes. ``They don't acclimate well, and they have a tendency to escape,'' she said.
The 25-year veteran teacher, who lives with her family in an old hunt club, says she has always loved animals. She has two horses, four cats, a dog and numerous pet frogs at home. On weekends, Mr. Peeps, who is ``spoiled and won't eat on his own,'' goes to Berson's house and lives in a cage by an open window.
She's hoping he will learn the laws of nature from the other birds who gather outside the window.
Joycelynn Green, one of Berson's students, found the bird in her yard a little more than a month ago. It had fallen from its nest and, with no feathers and closed eyes, had little chance of survival. Joycelynn laid the tiny creature on a bed of grass in a shoebox and tried to feed it worms. She decided if anyone could save the bird, it was her science teacher, so she brought it to school.
Berson literally became its mother, transferring it to a heating pad and feeding it moist dogfood hourly.
``Mr. Peeps is a European starling which has the markings of a female,'' she said. The female markings only recently became apparent, so ``she'' remains ``Mr.''
Although a wire cage has been provided for the bird, it prefers life outside it. Besides, there's too much going on in the classroom; Mr. Peeps might miss something.
``He loves to get in my grade book and chases the pencil when I'm trying to record grades,'' Berson said.
He visits the other animals, looks out the window at wild birds, bathes numerous times each day in a plastic tub and checks in with his ``mama'' often, affectionately pecking her ears and grooming her blonde hair.
Berson usually keeps the bird caged when her students are in class. His presence is disruptive to some of them, and a few are afraid of him. But before and after school, during lunch and in her free time, the teacher allows Mr. Peeps to go about his visiting, bathing and investigating.
On weekends and during the summer, the other classroom pets go home with various students to be cared for. In 18 years of keeping animals in her science classrooms, only one pet died, Berson said.
The other animals can go home with students because they remain in their cages. Mr. Peeps is wild, and he needs to be released to nature eventually, she said. That letting-go will be done in steps.
``I'd hate to have him swoop down into some woman's hair that looks like mine and have her husband swat him with a big stick,'' said Berson.
Her plan for release includes banding the bird and sending it away, knowing it will probably try to ``come home'' several times before it finds a new life in the wild.
``I've grown real attached to him,'' she said. ``It will be hard to let him go, but it's just about time.''
by CNB