I'm sure all of you who teach at the elementary level are familiar at some level with the story behind Beatrice's Goat. It's the true story about a young girl in Uganda whose family receives the gift of a goat, and how it changes her life. The goat provides a resource for the family to produce milk for its own consumption and for sale to others. This, in turn, provides capital to improve the family's home.
I'm also sure those of you familiar with the story were aware when Beatrice was able to go to college in 2005, and I hope you saw this story about her graduation. I trust you will share this story with your elementary students.
But I think this also has a lesson for those of you teaching at the high school level. Many of your students were first introduced to Beatrice in their early academic career. But I also suspect many of them lost track of her. You and they would be well served by a reintroduction. There is much to be learned about the value of capital to change one's life; and the importance of reinvesting in one's human capital. I'm sure Beatrice's life was changed by the goat. I suspect she will change the lives of many, many more people.
I look forward to your comments.
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1 comment:
I must be living under a rock because I can't believe I have never heard Beatrice's story. What a great story to use in the high school classroom. I can see several discussion ideas coming from this story.
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