RESOURCE GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PETS
Making sure the lessons taught were the lessons intended.
A Letter to Educators about Classroom pets:
Dear Friends,
The San Francisco SPCA believes that animals can be a valuable and important part of a classroom experience. However, it is important to remember that:
- A classroom pet cannot, by him/herself, teach your students about compassion or responsibility.
- Compassion and respect are best taught by example and cannot be learned through forced coercion.
Here is a short tale about a time when the lesson learned by a classroom pet was not the lesson the teacher intended her students to learn:
When I was a child, my brother's class had a mouse. One week in spring it was discovered that the cage door had been left ajar and that Ralph-the-mouse had escaped. Much effort was spent in explaining to the student that Ralph would be caught in a humane trap and the difference between a snap-traps and a humane trap.
So far, so good -a teachable moment taken- a lesson in compassion taught, right?
However things went terribly wrong when the students were "assigned" the responsibility of checking the trap. By accident, Ralph was forgotten and one Monday a few weeks later, there was a terrible smell. Ralph had been caught and died in the "humane" trap.
Even the best tools can be used inappropriately. Unfortunately, n this case the students were left feeling both grief-stricken and feeling guilty. And, while I doubt that this event alone could have irreversibly harmed any of the students -the message was, don't feel guilty, you learned about responsibility the "hard way." In fact they may have, but they also learned that life is only as valuable as the lessons that can be taught by its loss.
It is my belief that more could have been taught to these students about the value of life, had this teacher genuinely - of her own volition - been concerned with Ralph's safe return and had she modeled that concern for the students. That she was not genuinely attached to Ralph (enough to have the mouse on her mind everyday), must have been apparent to the students (not yet old enough to be given the full responsibility of finding Ralph). It is not necessary to have an animal in the room to teach compassion, respect, and responsibility. In fact if you wouldn't want the animal to live with you at home -it shouldn't be in your classroom.
Please only incorporate an animal in your classroom if you feel that you can teach by example, the rewards of responsibility and the value of compassion. Then and only then, if your students develop their own desire to participate in caring for a companion animal, allow them to assist you in the care of the animal and learn the benefits gained by their efforts.
Humanely Yours,
Laurie Routhier
SF/SPCA Humane Education Program Manager
The lessons taught by a classroom pet, will be only as good
as the love and care that the animals receives.
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