Ducklings Follow Mama Duck Through School, As Tradition Continues

HOPKINS, MN — Ten baby ducklings followed a mother duck through the halls of a suburban Minneapolis elementary school recently, a symbolic act that has been aligned to the school's sixth graders as they graduate in the spring and prepare for the move to middle school after summer vacation.

It's not just a one-time event but one that occurs every spring at Eisenhower Elementary School in Hopkins, Minnesota, KARE11 highlighted in a recent report at the school.

The Eisenhower Elementary tradition began 20 years ago, according to school media specialist Jeff Shepherd. In 2001, a mallard flew into the school's enclosed courtyard to lay her eggs but had no way of getting her ducklings, who were too young to fly, out of the space, Shepherd told KARE11.

So someone opened the courtyard door, allowing the duck and her ducklings to waddle down the school hallway and out another door that leads to a pond.

Several duck generations later, and that remains a spring tradition at the school in which students and teachers guide and cheer them on through the hallway. Patch has reached out to Shepherd for more on the school tradition.

Brad Gilmore, an Eisenhower parent who co-authored the children's book "Ducks in a Row... Here we Go!" — inspired by the tradition — with his wife, Laurie, told KARE the ritual is "really a metaphor for what the school is doing to prepare the kids for where they're going next."

Eisenhower's spring duckling ritual isn't the only one of its kind. Similar events are held during the spring at Arthur W. Coolidge Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts, and Glover Elementary School in Milton, Massachusetts, among others.