We Can Bridge the Gaps in Learning

It is imperative we find strategies to support our teachers and students as they return to in person learning. The therapeutic benefits of a Dogs in School Program can be transformational.

Educators are facing more challenges than ever before. 

Could adding a Dogs in School Program provide the unconditional love students and school communities need?

Education has evolved to become more about student mental health than the delivery of curriculum. So many factors have contributed to this and now educators are facing a pandemic.

In person learning is finally going to be a reality. Educators are recognizing the needs of their students and the gaps in learning that have grown due to the pandemic. 

Teachers begin to question if education is where they really want to be. Are they qualified to deal with the mental health challenges they face in their classrooms everyday? How do they teach students content when they are so troubled by all that is going on in their student world? How do they even begin to make up for all the lost time?

Getting students to school when they are depressed and cannot find any purpose is a huge issue. You cannot teach them if you cannot get them in front of you.

Setting Up a Dogs in School Program may not be on the agenda right now with the focus being on physical safety of students. Going from in person learning to remote/on line learning, lockdown fatigue, educating your own children and isolation, then back to in person learning are just a few of the stressors.

Maybe, just maybe finding something that creates excitement and motivates you to keep going could be the ticket.

As we get back to our lives the way we once knew them we are all going to be looking for ways to find our way back to feeling ourselves and positive mental health.

A Dogs in School Program has the capacity to affect the lives of the whole school community. Secretaries, custodians, teaching staff, administrators, parents and students. The feel good of the non-judgemental friend who greets everyone with an enthusiastic happy dance is therapeutic for all.

The gaps in literacy, social emotional learning, increasing attendance issues, behavioral issues, lacking special education programs, and the new realized inequity, issues we have so much catching up to do.

It will take more than one strategy and it will take a lot of time to address the problems created in education by the pandemic. 

I have one strategy to offer that can be transformational. 

We saw first hand how pets supported us during the anxiety of lock down, work from home, school closures and fear of getting sick. 

Why does it not make sense to take that social evidence and use it as we get back to life? 

If you are an administrator, teacher, parent, school custodian, school secretary, educational assistant and you believe in the therapeutic benefits of dogs check out my website for a complete guide to Start Up a Dogs in School Program. It is a comprehensive guide to get started.

You may need to be the advocate to get this into the hands of the powers who make the decisions in school boards/districts. You could be the beginning of something really special in your school community.

I know first hand the impact dogs in school had on my students, my school community and me. It is worth the extra effort.