Roosevelt Third Grade Visit

Tuesday morning area farmer Brent Fuchs and I visited the third grade classes at Roosevelt Elementary school in Faribault. We had an hour presentation with two classes together, then another hour with two more classes. As usual the students were very well behaved and seemed interested in our presentation. It likely helps with the pictures we have along with all the food items from the grocery store they recognize.

I have a special appreciation now for what it is like to be an elementary teacher. After standing and talking with the students for two hours in a row we were tired! Elementary teachers are with the students a lot longer in a day than two hours. Today a student asked a question that made Brent and I think carefully before we answered.

The question was "don't you have to kill the animal before they are used? We said remember we plant the seed of corn and it grows into a big plant? Then in the fall we harvest the corn. We harvest animals too. We put animals in barns to protect them from the weather, predators and feed them the best balanced ration possible. I explained that my cows saw their Doctor (Vet) every two weeks while I maybe saw my Doctor one time a year!

Farmers do the best they can to take care of their animals. We explained that from the moment our animals are born or hatched their job was to make people's lives better. I had suggested earlier in the presentation that maybe it would be good if we did not have farmers, then they would not have to take time to eat lunch. They could study and do homework instead, think how much more they could learn? I reminded them that they told me they had to eat to live!