A Letter from a Second-Grader: The Lesson the Bees Taught Me

Text/Wu Zhexi   Photo credit/ Shun'an Beekeeping Bee To We

Preface
This article was written by my child, Wu Zhexi, who has just turned seven and is in second grade at Kangning Elementary School.

At last month's NTU Bending Farmer's Market, I took him along to look around and buy things. That day, besides having a wonderful time at many of the farm stalls, learning about the five grains, and trying leaf rubbing, he also met a beekeeper named A-Kun. In just a few dozen minutes of encounter, A-Kun used his experience keeping bees to give Xiao Xi the best environmental lesson, and the next day Xiao Xi wrote this experience in his diary homework. I very much hope to share it with everyone: the market is the best educational lesson a child can have.

Wu Zhexi: The Lesson the Bees Taught Me   

Yesterday my mom and I went to the NTU Bending Farmer's Market. Many small farmers had come up from central and southern Taiwan, China, bringing their agricultural products for city people to taste.

Later I saw a beehive, and behind the beehive was a young man named A-Kun. He suddenly jumped out and chattered to us about bees. Brother A-Kun is a beekeeper, and he absolutely loves his bees. He asked me, why does the bee entrance have holes one after another? I said I didn't know. Brother A-Kun said, when bees come back from collecting pollen and fly into the hive, the pollen gets scraped off on the outside, and that is how we collect pollen. We thought it was amazing that the bees didn't even notice their pollen had been intercepted.

Bees work their whole lives. Just seven days after birth they have to spit out royal jelly to feed the larvae. Outside they have to collect pollen, and inside they have to clean the hive. Every day they just work, work, work. Brother A-Kun said bees die from overwork.

But if bees didn't work, our plants would be in trouble, because bees carry pollen from flower to flower and help plants bear fruit, so that the Earth can be full of birdsong and flowerscent, full of vitality. Bees are our good friends.

Kangning Elementary School, Class 5, Grade 2, Wu Zhexi

Beekeeper A-Kun, using a beehive at the market to introduce the benefits of bees and their ecology