Kiss a Cow!

By: Emily Oshinskie '14

At the 46 hour mark of the 60 hours of community service required for every freshman at Elmira College, you’d think that nothing else could surprise you. Well, I was wrong. Since September, I have been volunteering at George M. Diven Elementary in Elmira, NY. It has been an enriching experience, assisting 4th grade students with their reading and writing skills in a city school environment. Even as a kindergartener, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and told my parents that when my kindergarten teacher retired, I would gladly take her job. This experience working with fourth graders at Diven has allowed me to realize that I want to work with students anywhere between 3rd and 6th grade. While I agree that it is more challenging to do community service off-campus because of transportation, I would not regret my choice to volunteer at Diven for a second. I am not only interacting and assisting students but also I am learning teaching methods and instructional designs. But enough of this teacher jargon…back to my point about surprises…..

As I drove to Diven with my friend who also volunteers at the school, and we started contemplating the possibilities of the day. When I arrived in the 4th grade classroom, I noticed written on board was a schedule of the day and next to the 1:45pm-2:30pm spot was: KISS THE COW. I didn’t know if this was some sort of game or something and initially I did not know what to make of my supervisor’s explanation. According to her, all the students in the school read way over 3,000 minutes as a whole school and because the principal had challenged them and achieved their goal, the principal had to kiss a real cow….or in this case a calf. As we stepped outside onto the blacktop, I saw swarms of young kids –most of them in green, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. They all wildly and ecstatically chanted as their principal kissed a cow. It never ceases to amaze me what amuses kids. But I guess I’m the same way, which is why I’m going into the right career. Oh Education.