Photograph by George Sakkestad
Breanne Molloy gives Bonnie a hug during the dog's visit to Braly Elementary School in Sunnyvale.
By Katherine Petersen
Sunnyvale children learned from participating in a Santa Clara Valley Humane Society program that the "five T's"--thought, treatment, training, tolerance and tags--play an important role in caring for a pet.
The Kids & Kindness project also taught Diane Boggie's class of third-graders at Sunnyvale's Braly Elementary School that most of the T's apply to relationships with friends, classmates and family.
"The Humane Society taught us to be kind to and take care of animals and people," said 8-year-old Joo-Yeon Ryu.
Volunteers take time from their jobs to visit classrooms--some bringing their own pets along--to teach children about responsibility, caring for their animals, pet overpopulation, different animal breeds and respect for one another.
Bernadette Glumac, manager of the Humane Society's education program, developed the eight-week enrichment course, now in its third year. Glumac said the Humane Society wanted a value-based program that would teach compassion.
"We didn't want to just teach that cats need scratching posts and dogs need kibble. Kids learn to be kind to animals, themselves and each other," she said. The business community, which supports the project, is more interested in a broad program, she said. The Humane Society hopes to expand to include more grades, Glumac said.
Kids learn the importance of kindness to people and animals, but they also practice skills in math, science and reading. During the overpopulation segment of the project, kids did a math problem to show how animals who aren't spayed or neutered can multiply rapidly.
Joelle Simson, another volunteer, showed the kids how the situation can snowball by having two children come to the front of the room; each of them then chose two of their classmates to join them, and so on.
Bonnie, a boxer, visited the third-graders on their last day of the program and showed the children how animals can respond to proper care. Bonnie gave 8-year-old Levi Shank lots of kisses.
"We should treat our pets like family because they give us lots and lots of love like Bonnie. Bonnie likes me," he said.
"The animals who visit classrooms have been tested for temperament. One girl who was afraid of dogs drummed up the courage to pet one," said Margo Bennett, a volunteer for Kids & Kindness who works at Lockheed.
"She was able to go up and pet the top of its head. She didn't cry, but you could tell she was very afraid. I was proud of her," Bennett said.
Two pet rats also visited the classroom, climbing on kids' arms and through their hair.
Bennett was impressed that the kids retained a lot of the material and were ready with answers when lessons were reviewed.
"The five T's weren't just something they memorized; they remembered the definitions, too," Bennett said.
Each lesson was made up of storytelling, hands-on activities and discussion. The kids kept track of the material in their oversized journals, which they colored in as they liked.
"Each lesson has a color-coded parent letter that goes home. The kids get stickers if their parents sign the letter. They're valuable to the kids and they take special care in designing them," Glumac said.
The children also play pet-care bingo (a bilingual game), plant either a tree or flowering bush on school property and plant seeds in cups in the classroom to learn to nurture a living thing.
One of the most fun activities was making catnip sock toys for the cats and kittens, who await homes at the humane society.
Simson enjoyed making friends with the children and said they were receptive, and eager to learn. Many of the third-graders live in apartments and haven't had much exposure to pets, she said.
"It's a wonderful introduction to the world of animals. And they can take these experience with them through the rest of their lives," she said.
To find out more about Kids & Kindness, call Dori Fontain at 727-3383 ext. 865.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 12, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.