From an article by Diahann Gallard -Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, Liverpool John Moores University
"It might sound barking mad, but a school dog could be one way to help make schools a homelier environment as an antidote to the competitive and performance driven places they have become
Boris Levinson, a professor of psychology, suggested back in 1972 in his book Pets and Human Development that animals can help address “complex stresses created in a technological society whose values and institutions are in many ways dehumanising”. Levinson introduced the idea that the presence of an animal can be a “force” for enhancing children’s social and emotional skills and their capacity to relate to others on an emotional level.
Various education pioneers, including Rudolph Steiner, Maria Montessori and Susan Isaacs, have also described how animals bring children back to the rhythms and realities of the natural world"
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