If you're a parent would you think this was ridiculous if I pulled you aside after school for this?

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I work in a school.

A 5/6 year old today trod on a small bug. He did this on purpose.

I'd like to say it was because he didn't know better but this was half an hour after a lesson on looking after the environment and things we could do to care for nature. Lots was mentioned about animals, etc.

I pulled the child up and spoke to him about his behaviour. He essentially received the equivalent of a bad behaviour point as a result.

If you were pulled aside after school as a parent and told about this incident would you think it was ridiculous?

I know people have different views, some would draw the line at hurting an animal the size of a cat, for example, but wouldn't bat an eyelash at killing a spider.

No one kills spiders found in their house?!

Well at age 5/6 you're still shielding kids from the horrors of life so you're not exactly going to be traumatising them showing them videos of factory farms are you? Just like you're not teaching them about war and terrorism yet. Although I agree they should know where their meat comes from. I'm a vegetarian (I think one of those PETA factory farm videos is all it took!) but I never want to have to see one of those clips again. Wishful thinking I know but by the time these kids are grown up maybe we'll have more ethical meat sources. And yeah it's just a bug but we've done SO much damage to this planet already it's just a bit sad to go out of your way to step on one for nothing.

Slightly younger children drop food from their high chair to see what happens. This is just a few years on from that. It’s only really entertainment in that curious sense.

But children need to be taught that it isn't acceptable to kill any animal 'just because'.

Wasn't there another version of this on here the other day, from the other angle?

From the bug's point of view?

That made me laugh. 😂 From a parents point of view whose child had been told off for killing a bug. Actually I think it might be a Facebook group I'm on

I’m a teacher with a 4 year old.
We kill bugs a lot in our house to get rid of them quickly. I wouldn’t be concerned if my 4 year old followed suit.
I would think the teacher a little pathetic, roll my eyes and explain to my child that some people have a problem with killing bugs, but we personally don’t.
I think I’d be annoyed that they had got a sanction, but I’d probably let it slide.

Yes they do … but I posted quite extensively above about the aspects I see as problematic in this particular instance if seeking to use a punitive approach . I was really in this post just picking up on the idea that it was entertainment- and I’m not sure it was in the normal sense of that concept.

Why do you think it was for entertainment?

The OP doesn't mention the child being scared of the insect, and I can't think of another reason why a child would kill an insect- it's either fear or entertainment/curiosity (essentially the same thing to a 6-year-old).

If it were my 6 year old he would tell you in tears he trod on it because it was a humongous nasty looking spider who would bite him and kill him with its poison. Despite me telling him consistently that spiders here very rarely cause a nasty bite at most and certainly do not kill you, he won't listen to reason!!

The OP doesn’t mention the child being entertained by it either. She doesn’t mention any conversation she has asking him why he killed it. She gives no insight at all into his motivation.

But assuming he wasn’t scared, entertainment and curiosity are not essentially the same thing. Curiosity is about finding out about the world, working out how it works so that you are better able to survive and thrive in it. And children, who have a very limited understanding, are developmentally primed to be curious so they can fill out that limited understanding.

A child stamping on a bug out of curiosity would be seeing what effect it would have - possibly not certain if it would stop it, what it would feel like it, if they were even capable of doing it (because motor skills is one of the things they are really honing at that age). 5 year olds have a limited understanding of death, but seeing dead tings and seeing them die is one of the ways they develop that understanding.

But fear and curiosity are not the only reasons for killing a bug. My first assumption would have been that the child simply thought it was what you do to bugs if, for instance, his parents or other people important in his life kill bugs as a matter of course around the home. Copying adults being another thing children at that age are developmentally primed to do.

From someone who farms, we spray our crops to rid them of of bugs (this is a must), kill vermin and our animals go into the food chain. But I teach my little boy not to purposely stand on insects. However if I was pulled aside at the end of a school day to be told about this, I’d think it was ridiculous. I’d expect my child to be told by the teacher not to it because it’s not kind, but it stays there.

I was slicing slugs in two with pieces of flint in the garden last week and I squash spiders to death in the house almost every day. Hardly anyone in the UK is a buddhist which is one religion that does not allow killing insects. The rest of us see it as a social good in many cases depending on the nature of the insect. I would not want to kill rare bees which pollinate plants.

Given the situation with Russia etc at present we need to be ensuring our children grow up prepared to kill our enemies if they join the army and to ensure we do not molly coddle children so much we cannot defend this land.

Well, as you asked for honesty... I'd think that you're a batshit snowflake and you'd get an eye-roll for an answer.

😳
Pieces of flint..!?!!

And the verbs and adverbs are frightening: slicing, squashing and “ to death 👻