Walking through the door to your elementary classroom, seeing a ferret or hamster sitting on the window ledge just made your day ten times better. Did you know that having a furry or scaly companion in school is more than just cuteness overload? Animals can benefit students in unexpected ways.
The original uses of a classroom pet or encouraging students to bring their pets to school is to provide calm and relaxation when students are stressed or when their behavior is unstable, especially for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other special needs. Classroom pets are also to build responsibility and leadership among students.
However, according to the American Humane Association, the top three “school-specific” benefits of having animals in school reported by teachers are improvements in classroom social interactions and participation, behavioral issues in the classroom, and knowledge. Having animals in class can help break the ice; students are more likely to let down their guard and have the initiative to work with other students and participate in class activities. Students learn to coexist with animals in school. Therefore, they tend to have less behavioral issues and control their temper since they don’t want to frighten or agitate the animals. Last but definitely not least, animals bring valuable knowledge. Students can learn about the world by simply asking “ Where do they come from?”. Students absorb knowledge like a sponge and will be more than eager to learn the native habitat of the animals in class, their behaviors and their culture. Animals in science classes will especially benefit students. AP biology teacher Miss Clifford encourages her students to bring insects to class.
“Why I encourage students to bring insects to class is because a lot of them don’t know a lot of insects; they don’t know about them. So it gives them an opportunity to talk about them, talk about their life cycle, how they live, how they go through winter and things like that. And a lot of them haven’t seen an insect up close, like mantises and how they eat,” Miss Clifford explained.
As good as it sounds, realistically there are some challenges for getting a class pet. Being responsible for additional costs to care for the animal over the course of its lifespan is one of them. Anything can happen to an animal, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a hamster or a dog, the medical cost is not always that affordable. Looking into an animal insurance might be wise and helpful. Caring for the animal outside of school hours and on holiday breaks and vacations could also be a challenge, having a schedule of who is in charge of taking care of the pet for each day or week in the beginning of the school year would help make things more organized. Both having a classroom pet and bringing an animal to a class are pennies from heaven. They are definitely valuable for the school environment. Afterall, for knowledge will not acquire you, you must acquire it.
