"A teacher affects eternity; no one can tell where his influence stops."
~Henry Adams

Humane Education

• Basic needs: food, water, shelter, companionship, health - nutrition, vaccinations, medical treatment for illnesses & injuries, spay/neutering
  
  
• Basic life cycle & development: pregnancy, birth, aging, death
  
  
• Characteristics of species - interesting facts for children

• Use of posters: Example - Poster starting with 2 cats at top, next level - 4 kittens, next level each kitten has 4 kittens, each of those kittens has 4 kittens, and so on, and so on. Perhaps each generation can be color-coded until at the bottom of the poster the page is swarming with cats.
  
  
• Older children (late Middle School and High School ages) can learn about euthanasia
  
  
• Let children know that they CAN make a difference; that they are not helpless! For example, "Tell your parents and friends to spay/neuter their pets. Financial help is available in every state."

• For younger children: scripted towards understanding basic health needs and importance of spay/neuter
• Older children could perhaps follow the treatment and recovery of injured animals (preferably animals with visible injuries and good prognosis for recovery, although stories can be told with non-graphic photos of injured animals who died.

• Teach children that all animals have feelings just like people do. There are a variety of good books and movies for every age level that underscore this point. Get children thinking about how animals might feel in different situations.
  
  
• Ask them to tell stories about animals they've encountered and afterwards ask the class what the animal was probably feeling at different points of the story.
  
  
• Have younger children draw pictures and older children write stories about animals they have known. Ask for both "good" stories and "bad" stories. Have them answer "How is (the animal) feeling when(event/circumstance) happened?" Encourage them to connect animals' feelings to events that occur and circumstances that they are in, underscoring the relationships between events and feelings. Ask them, "How would you feel if this happened to you?"
  
  
• Encourage children to act with kindness towards animals. Ask them to tell/write stories about times they have helped an animal (i.e. dog was lonely, and child played with him; cat had no food or water and child gave them a can of tuna fish and bowl of water). Make sure to focus on how each child made a difference for the animal, how their individual actions can have a positive impact.
  
  
• Continue these discussions and writing themes throughout the year. Integrate the theme of animals' feelings into other subjects, such as Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Social Studies. Keep asking children to think about what various animals are feeling in different situations that come up.

• The goal is to teach children that all animals communicate even though we can't understand them. Children often can't relate to animals because they don't understand their behavior; The more different an animal (or person) seems, the more difficult it is to have empathy (just think about human prejudices/racism/sexism/the holocaust -- the underlying themes are "they're different from us").
  
  
• Use example of bilingual students - learn two different ways of saying key phrases such as hello, leave me alone, I'm scared, I'm hurt.
  
  
• Extend this metaphor to the animal world - teach them to become observers -"detectives" who have to figure out what various animals are saying with their body language and verbalizations, use photos as well as continue theme during hands-on activities.
  
  
• Have black & white outline drawings of different animals feeling different ways - let children pick and color masks to wear. For example, lion roaring - angry. The teacher can first hold up each mask and have children guess what the animal is feeling. Afterwards have them color/decorate the masks, put them on and act out short stories/plays directed by the teacher with additional input from the children.
  
  
• After children learn some of the basics of animal communication/expression have them participate in a charades-type game. Print out the "Actor" cards which, for example show a picture of a cat hissing, backing up, ears flattened and have the actor child act that out for the other kids and have them guess what the animal is "saying".

• Have younger children tell about or draw a picture about a time they saw a child/adult "being mean or hurting an animal". Focus on what the animal was probably feeling before/during/after being mistreated.
  
  
• Animal Helpers - instruct children to be "animal-helpers" and report animal abuse to adults especially teachers. Make this a ceremony with a short pledge (something like "I promise never to hurt animals, and to make sure other kids don't hurt animals either) and an award certificate they can take home. Use a brief phrase, preferably rhyming, so children will remember.
  
  
• After having become an official Animal Helper, again have children draw pictures or tell stories about a time they saw an animal being abused/neglected. This time have them create a different ending for the story, using 3 scenarios: 1- a happy ending, such as they told the children not to hurt the animal, that animals have feelings too, the children stop hurting the animal, everyone lives happily ever after. 2 - Child sees an older child/adult hurting an animal, they report it to a teacher, humane society reps go out and teach child/adult how to treat animals, abuser reforms and starts treating animals well. 3 - Child sees someone hurting an animal, tells adult/teacher, humane society reps go out try to teach how to treat animal, abuser hurts animal again, humane society removes animal and places him/her in happy adoptive home.
  
  
• Have a speaker from the Humane Society come out to your classroom regularly throughout the year. Children need to see that there is an authority who can deal with their concerns about animal neglect and mistreatment. The HS speaker will explain anonymity of complaints, as well as the steps the HS will take, such as investigating, educating pet owners on how to provide for the needs of animals, teaching owners non-violent ways of training animals, re-visits to assess how the owners/animals are doing, and situations in which an animal must be removed from a home. When children tell about incidents they've witnessed of animal neglect/mistreatment, teachers should explore with them what they can do to help the animal. In some situations, children may be able to take direct action (i.e. telling children hurting animals to stop, or asking their parents to provide food, water, shelter to a neglected animal) but most often their way of helping the animal will be to report it to the HS worker. Teachers should encourage children to tell the HS worker during his/her next visit to the classroom. If a situation sounds very serious, the teacher can help the child write a short letter or send an e-mail to the HS worker with their concerns.