ABSTRACT
Through handling – especially touching – them, children get to know animals in ways impossible by just seeing them.
Children have a natural affinity with animals
Animals teach compassion and responsibility
What about animals in schools and institutions? As team games – requiring even numbers – often leave one child out, Forest School Camps arrange a dog to play with. Both lone child and dog love it! School pets, even next-door cats, have an important ‘petting role’. So significant are they that children – describing their ideal school – requested a heart-shaped frontdoor with a heart-shaped cat-door.3
