Goats: Olney's Other Kids
The Kirk Barn is a popular destination for students in the months of April and May. The draw? Pregnant goats, goat birthing events, and baby goats. The goats at Olney Friends School help with brush control. The girl goats are named after graduating seniors. The boy goats are not named; they are sold or eaten. Student-prepared goat meals often draw on world cuisines — using spices a teacher brought back from Ethiopia, with recipes from Ethiopian students, for example. There are rarely any leftovers!
Recent 9th-grade classes have helped care for the goats as part of an integrated humanities curriculum on the theme of survival. Caring for animals is part of realizing one’s place in the world.