Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My Grade 1 Goat

To distract you from my lack of knitting, I'm going to tell you a goat story....

When I was just about to finish Kindergarten, my parents made the best decision of their lives (I mean aside from having me - though really, I was more of a happy accident than a decision). They decided to move us to the country.

We moved to a little town in Southern Ontario called Jerseryville. It's population was listed as 500 - though I'm pretty sure 400 of that was comprised completely of cows.

At the time, Jerseryville had a tiny little school that only went up to Grade 3 (and the Grade 3 class was actually a 2/3 split). After that, the kids got bussed to the next town over.

I went to Jerseryville school for Grade 1. My teacher was Mrs. Ireland. To this day she is my favourite teacher. What won my heart?

Other classes had hamsters, or guinea pigs as a class pet. What did our class have?
(Not actual class goat - just a picture ripped from the net)

A baby goat in a diaper.

Yep - can you imagine a class of about 20 six-to-seven-year-olds - and then you throw a baby goat in the mix?

Well, Mrs. Ireland thought it was a great idea. I don't remember baby goat's name (probably Billy) but boy could he bounce. And eat books. He was also being bottle fed, which is seriously cool when you're a six-year-old girl.

And that, my friends, is how you earn the title of coolest teacher ever - farm animals! (Not coincidentally, my second favourite teacher is Ms. Junker, who taught Grade 3 - she brought in incubated eggs we got to watch hatch, then raise the chicks.)

And now.... because I still have no knitting.

Reason number one why baby goats are cool!

9 comments:

TheBlackSheep said...

I think that's one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I hope he had little goat friends to play with after school, but he was cute. Great teacher! (and I bet you know that eggs aren't grown in supermarkets either :0)

Delusional Knitter said...

OMG that is a great video!! Totally distracted me from no knitting :o)

Monika said...

The title made me go "huh?" But it's a sweet story!

lexa said...

Now that is too cute! I just love goats, especially the little teeny tiny ones. I should show that to Hubs. I'd have one as long as it was potty trained! lol Too cute!

Rachelle said...

very cute goat and kitty. I remember we had the ubiquitous guinea pig in my suburban school; at my boys school though, I think one classroom has 3 goldfish; that's it.

Ashleigh Pie said...

That is so sweet, no wonder she was your favorite teacher

Araignee said...

I would have never thought of a goat as a class pet, but I did steal two of them from the University of Maryland Medical School-many, many years ago. They were scheduled to become autopsy material for the Vet school when a friend and I decided to rescue them. My mother was not happy when they ate her rose bushes but we did find them a nice home in the country where they lived to be very old goats on a farm.

zoom said...

That video is so cute it made me laugh and cry!

Knatolee said...

Ooooh, I would have LOVED a class goat. I really wanted to live on a farm as a kid. Finally got my wish as age 43!

That video is great!