69ý

Special Education

Colleagues

September 01, 2004 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Canine Character

Jennifer Wise helps troubled students help themselves by having them train dogs for the disabled. It sounds like an awfully indirect way to teach responsibility, persistence, and patience to students with a history of emotional dysfunction and chronic truancy, but it works. Now in its sixth year, Wise’s Kids and Canines program at the Dorothy Thomas Exceptional Center in Tampa, Florida, is the kind of resource not often found in public schools. Along with “graduating” about 20 dogs to assist handicapped people and provide therapy, Wise has taught about 60 previously unreachable students how to overcome their own challenges by simulating those of others.

In Jennifer Wise’s special education class, dogs aren’t pets—they’re co-teachers.
—Photograph by Jenn Peltz

“It’s a good program for me,” says 7th grader Tiffany Dunn, now in her second year with Kids and Canines. Tiffany and the other 18 students in Wise’s class spend their school days in wheelchairs, both to acclimate the dogs and to give the student-trainers a realistic feel for the obstacles disabled people must face. Tiffany says the experience has given her a sense of purpose: “There’s a reason for me to come to school now, and I am more patient with people than I was before.”

A special education teacher at Dorothy Thomas for 17 years, Wise built the program from scratch with a grant from the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice. Two student trainers are assigned to each dog, which is brought to the class when it’s about 8 weeks old. The puppies are then trained to perform certain commands; as they grow, so does the difficulty of the commands they must learn. “I treat the whole experience just like a job,” Wise says. “The kids have to interview, and they have certain responsibilities that they have to keep up with,” including dog grooming and general maintenance.

Tiffany and her fellow students have become more motivated and have developed new coping skills during the two-year program, according to Wise. Working with dogs, she says, somehow helps kids deal better with people— including themselves. “It’s not a quick fix,” she says. “But, with time, you start to see everything go up: self-esteem, confidence, grades, test scores, and their ability to interact with others.”

—Urmila Subramanyam

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69ý
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Special Education The Essential Skill 69ý With Learning Differences Need
69ý must teach students with learning differences how to communicate about their needs.
4 min read
Vector illustration of three birds being released from a cage.
iStock/Getty
Special Education A Guide to Bringing Neurodiverse Learners Into the Fold
Three tips for teachers and principals to accommodate learning differences.
3 min read
Neurodiversity. Thinking brain. Difference concept.
iStock/Getty Images + Education Week
Special Education 5 Key Ways to Support 69ý With Learning Differences
Teachers are often uncertain about how to support students who have dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia.
4 min read
Black teacher smiling and giving a student a high five in a classroom of Black elementary students.
E+/Getty
Special Education How 69ý With Disabilities Fare in Both Charter and Regular Public 69ý
69ý with disabilities experienced inequities in both types of schools, a new analysis shows.
6 min read
An illustration of a small person of color dragging a very large bookbag on their back.
DigitalVision Vectors