We have all probably seen animals in display cases around the school and in the some of the science classrooms. A lot of which are in Mr. Hyrell’s room. “This is probably like half of the amount of animals that the school has, in my room,” says Hygrell.
“So where do they all come from? Well, they started from Mr. Fieldler who is retired, and he was a a biology teacher until 1990 something. Some of these have been here I guess since the 70’s,” Hygrell says. “A lot of them have been hit by cars and flown into windows and some of the legal ones have been shot and brought in by students over the years. Yes, I know all of their names. I tell kids that they are all my friends, and some of them get a little weirded out,” he says. “I have never actually counted how many animals there is. I have a huge list of all of them, but I’ve never actually numbered it.”
Many of the animals in Mr. Hygrell’s room are ducks. And in one of his wildlife classes you have to take a test about all the kinds of ducks. “My infamous Duck Test? I give that test so when you are driving down the road you don’t just say, ‘Hey! There’s a duck!’ So you can know what kind it is. Like when you are walking down the hallway, you don’t just say, ‘Hey,’ to your friends. You say their name. It’s so you can actually care about them. ‘Hey there’s this one kid that just fell down and passed out in the hallway!’ No, if you know them then you say that Susie fell over in the hallway. When they have a name you have more of a connection and you actually care more.”
