Mooooo
How cows comforted a nation, saved humanity from small pox, makes little mountain villages oh-so-melodic.
A Book to Read:14 COWS FOR AMERICA
My favorite professor bought me this book nearly two decades ago. She’d gone to a convention and brought back a different hand-picked book for each student in her class. Is there any doubt why Cyndi Giorgis is my favorite professor? In addition to being the kindest person on the planet, she is a master regarding everything about books and education. Check out Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook. She recently edited and revised the 8th edition.
14 COWS FOR AMERICA is a true story: Kimeli’s story.
In early 2000, Kimeli, a young Maasai scholar, had been away at a University in New York. Now he is home for a visit. The opening pages are a celebration of Kimeli’s return home and a glimpse into life in Western Kenya, with a focus on cows.
“To the Maasai…the cow is life.”
Kimeli gathers his people and tells a story about his experience abroad.
It’s not a happy story.
In just a few lines, Kimeli tells his family and friends about the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Maasai are immediately heartsick for the poor Americans, who have endured so much suffering. It is decided that the Maasai will donate some of their most precious resource - their cows - to the United States.
“Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.”
I love reading this story to my students before we study Africa. So often my students see Africa as a place to be pitied. Kimeli’s story flips that bias around with as much love as possible.
Just make sure you’ve read the book aloud a few times before class so you don’t cry when you read the last page to your students.
14 COWS FOR AMERICA is written by Carmen Agra Deedy and gorgeously illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez. The story is written in collaboration with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah. A note from Kimeli Naiyomah follows the story.
A place to explore:
Sadly, I haven’t been to Kenya, so this is going to be a circuitous route. Stay with me here.
Cows are important to the Maasai. Cows are also important to the Swiss. I was just petting cows in Switzerland, therefore, I will write about cowbells chiming up in mountain villages.
It occurs to me that I could have just as easily written about visiting the dairy farm in Wisconsin where my dad grew up.
Sorry, Dad. Cows are cooler when they are in another country.
My favorite place to listen to cowbell chimes in Switzerland was in Gimmelwald. Like all the best places, it’s not easy to get to Gimmelwald. Take the train to Interlaken, and then a special Swiss Train to Laturbrunnen (your Eurail pass is no good here - get a Swiss Travel Pass). Then take a funicular up to Murren, and then it’s a 30 minute walk down to Gimmelwald.
Be ready for SO MANY MOUNTAINS! You’ll be staring at cliff faces and mountain valleys and waterfalls the whole time.
Then stop at one of the two-ish restaurants in town. If you are lucky, as we were, there will be cows wandering around nearby, chiming away.
Once you are done eating, drinking, petting cows, and wandering around town you can take a funicular back down to the valley.
A lesson to teach:
Village-roaming cows aren’t just quaint animals for tourists to admire.
Back in the 1740s, they were also useful in protecting their human companions from smallpox.
The practice of inoculating children with smallpox in order to establish immunity had been around for centuries when physician Edward Jenner drastically improved the practice. Recalling tales that dairymaids were protected from smallpox after a bout with cowpox, Jenner concluded that cowpox could be used as a safer form of inoculation. He called the new procedure “vaccination.” If you want more info, the National Library of Medicine has an interesting (and quite readable!) article here.
I tell my students the story of Edward Jenner and his cows as part of a lesson on the Scientific Revolution. I usually have to insert a quick biology lesson about immunity as well.
But before I do any of that, I begin my lesson by giving my students this political cartoon:
I find the secret color copier in the school and print out a colored picture for each student, along with a See-Think-Wonder chart with prompts. The chart also includes a link to a short article about the cartoon, which may or may not answer any of their “wonder” questions.
Then I tell them about Edward Jenner. A conversation about vaccine skepticism today usually follows.
Love this, Jenna! I learn so much from you.