"The Pet Goat" (often erroneously called "My Pet Goat") is a grade-school-level reading exercise composed by American educationalist Siegfried "Zig" Engelmann and Elaine C. Bruner. It is notable for being read by U.S. president George W. Bush at a school in Florida on the morning of the September 11, 2001 attacks (9/11), while he listened to a class of second-graders read it aloud. After being discreetly informed of the crash of United Airlines Flight 175 midway through the reading, Bush waited quietly for them to finish the story before responding to the unfolding crisis. His wait has gained notoriety in the retrospective assessment of Bush's response to 9/11.
"The Pet Goat" is a reading exercise for children created by Siegfried Engelmann, who had written over a thousand similar exercises since the 1970s, and Elaine C. Bruner. It was included as one of many exercises in the 1995 classroom workbookReading Mastery: Rainbow Edition, Level 2, Storybook 1.[1][2] "The Pet Goat" is designed to teach students about words ending in the letter E, using the Direct Instruction (DI) teaching method. The exercise tells a story about a girl's pet goat, which her parents want to get rid of because it eats everything; the parents relent after it foils a robbery by butting the intruder, who becomes "sore".[2]
Bush upon leaving the classroom at Booker Elementary, while a TV shows live footage of the burning World Trade Center
For seven minutes afterwards, Bush quietly continued listening to the reading, while Bush sat—The Wall Street Journal writes—"trying to keep under tight control."[2] Despite the president's efforts to remain stoic and not alarm the children, students knew something was wrong; they later said that the president's face became red and serious, and his expression was "flabbergasted, shocked, [and] horrified".[5] According to Bill Sammon's book Fighting Back, Bush's gaze flitted about the room—the children, the press, the floor, his staff—while his mind raced about everything he did not yet know. After receiving cue-card advice from his press secretary, Ari Fleischer ("DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET"), the "notoriously punctual" president lingered in the classroom after the reading exercise was finished: he adamantly did not want to give an appearance of panic. After chatting with the students and their teacher, Bush deflected a Trade Center–related question from a reporter and began to learn about the magnitude of the attacks.[6]
Reactions
"The Pet Goat" first came to attention in Michael Moore's documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, a critique of the Bush administration's actions related to 9/11, especially the Iraq War, which premiered in May 2004. Narrating the film, Moore incorrectly stated that the title was "My Pet Goat". Soon after the film's release, blogger Peter Smith tracked down the story's correct name, and its origin as a reading exercise by Engelmann.[1][2][7]
Fahrenheit 9/11 features an entire seven-minute video recording of Bush listening to the students, with Moore presenting the moment as him faltering in the face of a crisis.[1][2]The New Yorker described Bush "staring blankly into space" as the most memorable segment in the film.[1] Many of Bush's supporters responded to Fahrenheit 9/11 by arguing that there was nothing for him to do but wait for more information, as to not alarm the students.[2]
"The President told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis. The national press corps was standing behind the children in the classroom; he saw their phones and pagers start to ring. The President felt he should project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening."
Booker Elementary's principal, Gwendolyn Tose-Rigell, believed Bush's claimed reasoning was sound—"I don't think anyone could have handled it better. What would it have served if [Bush] had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"—as did Daniels' students in general.[5]
By September 2002, Daniels' classroom still had the chair in which Bush sat; it was festooned with a purple ribbon.[3] In 2004, Engelmann said he was surprised at the attention "The Pet Goat" received: "It's fascinating that anyone would even be interested in something like this." Nonetheless, he said, it had not brought him any fame.[2]
In October 2004, Al Jazeera broadcast a video recording of 9/11 perpetrator Osama bin Laden giving a statement to the American public.[10][11] In it, he implies that Bush's wait helped the hijackers who were still alive carry out their plan.[12][13]
"It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American Armed Forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the Twin Towers[a] to face those great horrors alone, the time when they most needed him. [As Bush] seemed to [decide that] occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers, we were given three times the period required to execute the operations – all praise is due to Allah."
Between 2010–2012, the category also included Worst Screen Ensemble.
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