Wednesday I took my VFT to school.

[Kayota]

The number of stupid things people say... wow.

"Put a piece of sausage in it!"
"Will it bite?"
"Can I stick my finger in it?"
"What do you feed it?"
"It grosses me out when you touch it."
"It's cute! I want to snuggle it!"
"Is that a cactus?
"Is that a Venus Flytrap?"
"I thought that was a salad!"
And of course: "I had one and it died!"

This conversation amused me:
"In the jungle, they have VFTs as big as your head!"
"No they don't..."
"Yes they do, I saw it on TV!"
"Trust me Jeff, they don't."
"Look it up!"

Uh-huh.

I had the plant with me all day and everybody wanted to stick things in it... luckily only one trap was open and the guy mentioned above shut it again, so I didn't have too many problems with it.

 

[Clue]

The "is it a cactus?" thing is what the kids at school often ask...

... and the ending conversation about giant VFTs is just as familiar.

 

[Kayota]

Yep. Still cracks me up though. And also irritates me when they don't believe me... I've been growing these for nearly two years and they killed theirs in a week... who's the better grower?

 

[SirKristoff]

i brought my N. spectabilis 'north sumatra' to school last year for some of the teachers who wanted to see it
i got a rather large number of stupid questions and comments as well lol and these were from highschool kids, which i assume your also in highschool though. But damn lol people can be pretty dense.

 

[BobZ]

That is not terribly surprising. The understanding by Americans of biology and natural systems is poor, but improves with education level. For example, 200 years after Darwin, based on the Gallup Poll, there is a strong relationship between education and belief in Darwin's theory, as might be expected, ranging from 21% of those with high-school educations or less to 74% of those with postgraduate degrees.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/114544/Darwin-Birthday-Believe-Evolution.aspx

 

[Kayota]

I only have a high school education so far and I feel like my fellow students are all dense!

 

[petmantis]

I try to avoid bringing VFT's to school, since no one could ever imagine there's such thing as 'another type' of cp...

No point trying to convince your colleagues, hehehe

 

[Kayota]

I've brought my sarr last year so everyone in my school, at least, knows. I fed it bugs and things in the middle of class and everyone was all "COOL" haha.

 

[jimscott]

LOL! I think you've painted yourself as a certified nerd! Do you wear glasses?

 

[Capensis]

Lol, I brought my VFT to school once, but luckily I didn't really get stupid comments. Just people freaking out what would happen if they put their fingers in it.

 

[Grey Moss]

This happened to me once, I was giving an ephippitata to a classmate and had a guy call it a venus flytrap. Another guy tried bending the lids down to get it to close.

 

[Capensis]

Fail.

 

[petmantis]

Lol! Why would you even give N. eppiphiata away?!

 

[Chomp]

I once took the original "Chomp" to school, and the way I held the pot made the VFT wobble around, and people thought that it was trying to move around.

 

[Kayota]

LOL! I think you've painted yourself as a certified nerd! Do you wear glasses?

I do... haha.

Oh another thing I heard was "Do they have brains?"

 

[jimscott]

Are you also good in math and chess and puzzles?

 

[Kayota]

Are you also good in math and chess and puzzles?

Puzzles and math yes... Chess laws no (as Tom Cullen would say. bonus points if you get the reference).

 

[aaddaam]

ive never even told people at my school about all of my plants. i would proably get made fun of.

 

[Adam]

Now i'm in seventh grade, i've brought in a few of my plants yearly since 4th grade, skipping last year. luckily my classmates are better educated of them because i talked of them. I also gave away bladderwort cuttings in 5th grade. The person who had them longest was about 2 1/2 months, i believe

 

[Chaddycakez]

That's so funny! If I brought mine's to school people would finger-rape it. :[