A visit with a Humane Education classroom
By CHRISSEY MILLER Aiken SPCA volunteer coordinator
The Aiken SPCA Humane Education program teaches kindness to animals, responsible pet ownership, and (get this!) writing and math skills, as well as character education.
The Humane Education volunteers provide an engaging experience for elementary school students. Most of the volunteers teaching the lessons have past experience as educators, so they are able to sneak in educational skills under the diversion of a well-behaved furry friend. Kids love it. Teachers love it. Animals love it. Everybody wins.
The formal program consists of seven guided classroom lessons once a month over the course of the school year. A typical lesson discusses and demonstrates topics such as safety around animals or responsible pet care, and uses writing, reading, math and character education to reinforce the lesson. The SPCA also brings Humane Education to the schools in assembly format or other occasional visits agreed upon or requested by the schools.
Last Wednesday, the SPCA visited Chukker Creek Elementary School with the Kiwanis Club’s K-Kids. Angela Boyette, a Kiwanis representative and a volunteer at the SPCA, coordinated the event. Volunteer Joan Irvine brought her four-legged pal Abby, a one-time shelter dog. Chrissey Miller, volunteer coordinator for the SPCA, presented the program to an audience of 200, wherein one student, MacKenzie Swearingen, became a “dog for a day.”
MacKenzie, er “Patches,” was then cared for by her fellow students. They gave her a collar, complete with rabies vaccine, name, microchip and dog park tags. They brushed her coat, sprayed her for fleas and ticks and gave her heartworm medicine. They even wrapped her in a bandage to signify that she had been spayed. The program encouraged audience participation, asking and answering questions, and repeating new vocabulary words such as “external parasite” and “distemper.”
The children participated in a math exercise demonstrating how one puppy could beget as many as 100 pups within 18 months if pet owners choose not to spay or neuter. Finally, the kids were given information about volunteering with parents at the SPCA and Jr. SPCA.
There are a number of other schools in the Aiken area that are participating in the Humane Education program. Millbrook Elementary School recently had the SPCA in attendance for Family Enrichment Night. Last Friday, kindergartners at Mead Hall collected items for the SPCA and were visited by Shelter Dog and Shelter Kitty. Other elementary schools often kick off or close these presentations with food drives benefiting the animals at the shelter and fostering responsibility to the community in the children themselves.
The Aiken SPCA is making arrangements to meet its goal of taking the formal program into every elementary school in Aiken County. If you can help through a donation of time, money or materials, or if you are interested in bringing this program to your school, call Chrissey Miller at the Aiken SPCA at 648-6863.
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