West Seattle school news: Westside, HP Elementary, WSC Preschool

Three notes about local schools – starting with video from Westside School (WSB sponsor), where the Garfield High School Lion Dance Team performed at a Lunar New Year assembly this morning, introduced by Westside’s Chinese-language teacher Steven Whiting. (Westside has an open house coming up next week for its new middle school – 6 pm February 9th).

Second, special visitors at Highland Park Elementary School:

(Highland Park Elementary event photos by Deanie Schwarz for WSB)
Cinnamon, a six-week-old dairy calf from Monroe, was the surprise guest on Thursday as part of Harvest to Table education in Seattle Public Schools. Health Intervention Specialist Helen Walsh told WSB, “This month we are highlighting dairy and how important it is for our bodies. Next month, we will be doing potatoes, and who knows what we will be doing for that!” Also visiting along with Cinnamon, Kelsey Schubach, a Dairy Ambassador for the Dairy Farmers of Washington:

She talked to students about what cows eat and how they are milked, and widened some eyes by explaining that cows have four stomachs.

Last but not least – a student art display in The Junction:

Art from West Seattle Christian Preschool is now hanging at Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor) in The Junction, where proprietor Lora noted that Hotwire’s newly repainted walls are an even-better backdrop for art. Hotwire is one of the stops on the monthly West Seattle Art Walk – next week’s edition is less than a week away, next Thursday night (February 10th), 6-9 pm.

jbar February 5, 2011 (8:13 am)

Way cool, Westside School!

Kat in HighPoint February 5, 2011 (11:17 am)

… Oh, and if we kill this adorable baby cow you and your parents can enjoy a nice veal cutlet! It’s OK though, ’cause we killed its momma already to make those hamburgers you like so much…
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Over the top? Yes. However, I doubt that they talked much, if at all about the slaughter of the animals while the children were looking at a live, adorable animal. Why do we avoid this issue? Gloss over the facts of where meat comes from? Mention it in passing on one side of our mouths while singing “Old MacDonald” out the other?
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We present “farming” as it existed long ago. When animal husbandry was real.
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With our neatly packaged meat products in our sanitized grocery stores, it’s simply too easy to take the actual death out of meat consumption.
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Take the kids to a slaughter house, let them see where their hotdogs really come from. Do you shudder at the thought? Perhaps because the death of so many animals is grisly and horrifying? We don’t do it because it is disturbing and we don’t want to subject our children to death and bloodshed. We want to go on thinking that our neatly wrapped pound of ground came from some abstract, far-off place. I think that if we were honest with kids (and ourselves) from the start, there would be a lot more vegetarians running around.
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OK, before you carnivorous blog hounds pounce on me, ask yourself – Would you show your child (if you had one) the process of meat production from start to finish? From “life” on a (factory) farm, through slaughter, through rendering… Not a book, mind you, a real “meat” tour. Why not?
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Proceed, if you will, to the slaughter of this post…

westseattledood February 5, 2011 (12:39 pm)

Lighten up, just a little. Take a closer look at what the educational piece was about. Dairy products, milk and yogurt, locally procured. Beef as food was not the message.

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