By James and Theodore, Alexander Adaire Fit Fish reporters |
Dear Principal Jenkins,
It has come to our attention that getting a therapy dog for Adaire or merely bringing a therapy dog to school for a day would have major benefits. There are a plethora of reasons, but for the sake of your time, we will only list a couple. After gathering information from the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, we come to you with these three reasons:
- Spending time with a dog can reduce stress.
According to the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, “For students or stressed-out kids who don’t own a dog, a therapy dog is a perfect substitute. They can spend time cuddling and interacting with the dog without having the responsibilities of a dog owner. Many therapy dog teams visit high schools and colleges during exam weeks to provide some stress relief.” During exam weeks, kids have elevated stress, so bringing in a therapy dog can help alleviate stress, so kids can perform better during testing. - Therapy dogs can help calm down children.
The Alliance of Therapy Dogs writes about “5 Ways Therapy Dogs Can Help Kids” on their website, “A visit from a therapy dog can encourage children who struggle to handle their emotions or stay still.” The students will learn “that to have fun with their furry visitor, they need to be calm” and gentle. This shows that kids can learn to calm themselves down because if you act crazy around a dog, then the dog might feel threatened and be unsettled. - They can help children with autism.
The Alliance of Therapy Dogs says in an article that children with autism “often struggle to handle their emotions and deal with social situations, but therapy dogs can help them overcome these challenges.” This piece of evidence is compelling because a therapy dog could strengthen an autistic child’s ability to manage their emotions by letting them interact with an adorable dog and an understanding adult handler.
In summary, there are a multitude of reasons that getting─or even having a visit from─a therapy dog would bring positive results for different members of the Adaire student body. As a plus, the dog would also be cute. We highly recommend a visit from one of these dogs. It would help lots of kids and could change many different aspects of their lives and help their education in a noticeable way.
Sincerely,
James and Theodore
Illustration by Kailyn, 5th grade, Cramp, 2025-26.
