Re-Storying
If you ask young people how they feel about insects, many will say: “Disgusting.” “I don’t like them.” “They scare me.”
Whether it’s ants, spiders, honeybees, or other small insects, fear and discomfort are common reactions.
Butterflies are the exception. They are welcomed with wonder and awe — largely because we have labelled them as beautiful.
What’s interesting is that this wasn’t always the case.
When children are very young, they often show no fear or disgust toward insects or the living world around them. They touch, observe, follow ants, watch spiders, and ask endless questions. So what changes as they grow up?
Conditioning.
The stories we hear repeatedly shape our beliefs and emotions. “Bees are dangerous.” “Ants always bite.” “All spiders are poisonous.”
Over time, these stories settle into our bodies as fear and avoidance — long before any real experience.
This raises an important question for me as an educator: Can we re-story our relationship with insects and the more-than-human world?
In small ways, we are trying.
Recently, I worked with young children on a project where we wrote new stories about ants and spiders. We turned them into musical puppet shows — not to romanticize insects, but to re-introduce them as fellow living beings we can relate to.
We explored insects through:
- games like insect bingo
- magnifying glasses and microscopes
- slow observation walks
- stories, music, and puppetry
These experiences gave children the space to reconnect — not through information alone, but through emotion, curiosity, and relationship.
Stories are powerful. They shape how we see the world — and how we treat it.
As an educator, I see my role not just as teaching facts, but as using stories responsibly — for the larger good, to nurture care, sensitivity, and a sense of belonging with the living world around us.
Perhaps changing our ecological future begins with changing the stories we tell our children.