"Crazy art teacher" brings python to class as teaching aid

The "crazy art teacher" brought a python that is two meters in length and five kilograms in weight to class as a "model" to teach students how to draw animals. A video showing Zou, a teacher at No.59 Middle School of Wuhan, bringing a python to class became extremely popular online. Between October 27 and November 4, the video has been reproduced on over 400 websites and received over 126,000 hits on one website alone.

Zou Huazhang is like a "snake charmer"

Bringing a python to art class

"The python looks slippery but it has more than 300 joints in its body, so it is not easy to draw it well." During the video titled "the craziest art teacher in China brought a python to his class", well-dressed Zou held the python in his hands and talked to the students about it. The python was very cooperative, sometimes lying across his shoulders and sometimes sliding over his arms while raising its head occasionally to look around. The 40 students in the class were very excited, and watched and drew the python. Several bold students even touched its body, smiling and unafraid of it.

Traditionally during art classes in junior middle schools, students draw models such as pots and pans, fruit and vegetables that are placed in the classroom or make clay sculptures and hand-made articles. So why does Zou bring a python to class?

On November 4, reporters met Zhou, a 40-year-old senior art teacher who has taught for 15 years. He said that the aim is to stimulate students' interest in learning and improve teaching effectiveness. "When I first started teaching, I borrowed a lot of animal specimens for the students to draw. But as the specimens are dead they do not allow students to portray their spirit. So I bought several rabbits and ducklings and brought them to class for students to draw. Once I accidentally came into contact with a python, then an idea came into my mind: let the students draw it."

Zou said that he met an animal keeper and the python he fed. The python is very tame and has no teeth. It eats mainly by swallowing so it cannot hurt the students. Zou asked the keeper to bring the python to class so the students can draw it, and it was a success.

"We were excited because Teacher Zou brought a python to class." Yang Shanshan, a student in Class Two of Grade Two at the school, said that Zou can always stimulate students' imagination, and everybody feels relaxed in his class and can learns a lot of extracurricular knowledge.

Translated by LOTO