As the Director of Humane Education at our local humane
society, I am always looking for fun and interesting ways to entertain
children while teaching them about basic companion animal care. Humane
Educators are being invited into the schools and day-care facilities all
over the country. One day last week, I paid a visit to the Humane
Education Director at the Humane Society of Broward County, Caroline
Crane. Caroline was gracious enough to spend a couple of hours
"teaching" me how to teach children to respect animals. And she comes by
it honestly, Caroline is a former school teacher herself!
Bringing these programs to local schools and day-care
centers does not take an act of congress! Usually, it can be done by
word of mouth. Anyone who is working at a humane society as a volunteer
would be a candidate for this type of work, providing s/he is a good
public speaker and can work with children. A good beginning is a written
outline of your program to be sent it to the local school board. Once a
teacher has seen an actual presentation, others will be calling. It is
important to remember that, although we are animal-rights minded, this
effort is an animal-welfare effort, and by keeping that in mind, we stay
in the mainstream and are easily invited to schools so that we can teach
children respect for animals. Once they learn to respect dogs and cats
and other companions, the animal-rights philosophy is much easier for
them to grasp when the time comes. It is like planting a seed and
watching it grow, blossom and become productive.
There are several grade-specific programs that Caroline
relies on, but the one that I found most compelling was the "Pet
Suitcase" program. It works for small children because it employs visual
aids, interaction with the children, and is easy enough for even
slow-learners to participate in.
The educator brings a colorful children's suitcase
filled with dog and cat items that the animal would need if moving to a
new home. The items in the suitcase are such things as a food bowl,
water bowl, tennis ball, t-shirt with guardian's scent, brush,
heart guard, license, catnip, mouse, pooper scooper and bag, lead and
collar. It also contains cookies and other treats. The children are
invited to, one by one, come up and remove an item, and show it to the
class, similar to show and tell. Then, they tell why the companion
animal would need such an item. Usually, the teacher would also have
either a live therapy dog to whom the children can speak, or a dog or
cat puppet who narrates the entire event. As each item is shown to the
class, the humane educator expands on it's use -- the reason for
Frontline, Heartguard, tennis balls, and so on. For older children,
medical supplies that would help segue the conversation to spay/neuter
post-op care would help as well.
Also included in this presentation is a visual aid of
procreation. Take two items (animal-shaped pasta, if you can find them,
or small plastic cats or dogs) and tell the class "These two cats got
together and had five babies" show the five babies, along with the two
adults, and now there are seven, and then each of the five, have five,
and so on, until you have a huge pile of whatever the items are. This
visual aid works very well because they can see how the multiplication
works, and teachers love anything to do with mathematics, even if the
kids don't.
I have heard that humane education is required in some
California counties and I hope that is true, because until we teach our
children to show respect and compassion for animals, they won't
understand that animals have feelings, and the consequences of that
omission are dire indeed. The children want to learn. We need to teach
them.
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Writers note: I am very interested in hearing from other educators and
teachers about ways to teach compassion and respect for children. Also,
if anyone has any connection with toy stores or puppet outlets that may
be willing to donate these items, or if anyone has some that they are
not using, I would truly appreciate hearing from you. I will need
several as I will be setting up about six kits, one for each fully
trained volunteer. Please contact me directly at [email protected]
Go on to Down on the
Pharm: Cloning, Designer Animals, and Biofactories
Return to 15 November 2000 Issue
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