COMMENTARY
Bush helps kick 'Pet Goat' into high gear
By Daniel Chang
Knight Ridder News Service
It's not about to knock "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" off the best-seller lists, and Hollywood isn't clamoring for the movie rights, but "My Pet Goat" is turning into a must-read among some fans of Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11."
The only trouble is the story goes by a different title, and it's hard to find unless you're in elementary school.
As shown in Moore's documentary, President Bush thumbs through "The Pet Goat," the story's actual title, during a visit to Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
After an aide whispers to the president the news of the second plane crash, Bush appears stunned but composed. Then he reaches for a textbook containing "The Pet Goat" and holds it for about seven minutes as the class reads aloud.
Moore uses the scene to portray the president as indecisive. The president's camp has said Bush sought to exude an air of calm.
Whatever pundits read into Bush's reaction, one thing appears certain: "The Pet Goat" scene is one of the most talked about in the movie.
Since "Fahrenheit 9/11's" opening on June 25, the book's publisher, SRA/McGraw-Hill, has received numerous calls about "The Pet Goat," said spokeswoman April Hattori. And while bookstores haven't been overwhelmed by requests for it, "The Pet Goat" has spurred heated commentary and even hotter commerce on the Internet.
Bloggers have weighed in with long-winded screeds citing "The Pet Goat"; the textbook in which the story appears, "Reading Mastery II, Storybook I," was fetching as much as $32 on the Internet auction site, eBay, last week; and Internet retailer Amazon.com, which sells the textbook for $37.20, cannot fill orders until late July.
News outlets from around the world have called the Sarasota elementary school where Bush picked up the textbook, asking where they can get a copy, said assistant principal David Fultz.
"We've received calls from the British Broadcasting Corp., the Iraqi news network, the Washington Post, CNN," he said.
Hattori wouldn't speculate what people planned to do with the book since it's not exactly made for the coffee table. But a look at how it is being sold on eBay provides some clue: "Read the amazing story that had President Bush spellbound! Gather your friends and relations at your next party and read it to them!"
A quick read of "The Pet Goat" suggests this may be a polite way to end any party. The story, designed to help students master words that end in the letter "E," is about a girl and her ravenous pet. The girl's dad wants to get rid of the goat. But then the goat butts a would-be car thief and gets to stay.
In South Florida, the "Reading Mastery" series of textbooks have been used for remedial reading instruction in elementary schools.
Broward County Public Schools recommends "Reading Mastery" as a phonics supplement, said Teri Acquavita, a reading curriculum specialist. Miami-Dade County public schools began using the texts in 26 elementary schools about three years ago, said Edel Abril, an instructional supervisor.
"Schools that were eligible to choose "Reading Mastery" three years ago were all D and F schools," Abril said. "Those schools are no longer D or F."
That's precisely the legacy that the author of "The Pet Goat" had hoped to leave.
Siegfried Engelmann spent a career at the University of Illinois and the University of Oregon developing Direct Instruction, the teaching method behind "Reading Mastery."
The texts, he said, have dramatically improved reading proficiency at schools in Baltimore, Chicago and elsewhere.
Now those achievements have been upstaged by "The Pet Goat."
"We've shown things that no one in the history of education have shown in terms of teaching at-risk students and we've received no recognition for it, basically, at all," Engelmann said. "And then to get recognition over this one story is sort of like, a little like, ironic or stupid."
