NOTE: Mr. Lee has provided Renz with a copy of all the paperwork he had to submit relative to the book passing the Florida Science Standards for public schools. This may be a tremendous time-saver for interested schools--and is available at no charge.

Recently, Parrott Middle School kicked off their annual reading program and anti-bullying campaign by reading a novel about an unorthodoxed lead character. In the novel, Doug the dung beetle, falls in love with a mammoth's dung and then becomes smitten with Millie, the mammoth who left the droppings.  

Taking place 500,000 years ago in the Pleistocene epoch, Doug and Millie meet weekly at the water hole with an ancient horse, sloth and llama. Together, the young free-thinkers argue respectfully about evolution, religion, ethics, kindness, specie-ism, hunting, sports, happiness and the art of rolling the perfect dung ball.  

They don't successfully solve all of life's complicated challenges, but they do have enriching social and scientific discussions. In the process, they get to know themselves and each other a little better and come away with fewer prejudices and misunderstandings.

Here are comments from science teacher Billie Lee as he read the book aloud:  

The book is peaking students' natural curiosity about "life" and their role in the global society. Chapter One led to discussions of food chains, the importance of decomposers and the relationships shared between organisms. Chapter Two got the students thinking about human beings as the center of the "life" universe.  It also led to discussions on whether or not animals can truly "think"; whether they communicate between species; how the weather affects the entire spectrum of "life"; and whether animals can truly problem solve.

I have taught more in a short time using “Doug”, than before using a text book.  My kids are involved, they are thinking, they are problem solving, even using Doug's dung dining experience as an experiment, discussing the controls and variables that were involved.

In the chapter on kindness, one of my girls shared that at the bus stop there was a large horned beetle trying to cross the road and one of the boys went out to stomp on it just for kicks. Her random act of kindness was to tell him that it wasn't necessary to kill the poor beetle -- all it was trying to do was live out its life, and the boy listened. They then helped it get into the grass so that it would not be run over by a car.  One small step at a time!

Chapter 9 lit the kids up!  They figured out real quick that specie-ism and racism are pretty much the same concept.  They also brought in the religious differences, which was the hot topic around our part of the state.  They thought the preacher who was going to burn the Koran needed to read the book he was defending.

They seemed to grasp that we are all one with the same goals in mind. But they came to realize that other living things also have a stake in this game.  The hunters and the tree huggers got into quite a debate on whether hunting was ethical and how could you shoot a poor little animal.  The hunters held their own. They brought up over-population of the deer herd, the spread of disease, the impact of over-population on the environment, and then they hit home with the question, Do you eat meat?  They then brought up the hormones and antibiotics used to grow commercial meat and the health benefits from eating wild game. The little folks have more going on in their heads than I thought.  Promoting free thought and being able to support their opinions with limited facts impressed me.

They are thinking, explaining, communicating and sharing ideas and information and that makes any good teacher happy.