Dogs help Ridgewood students lower stress levels
JANUARY 28, 2016 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2016, 11:41 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Ridgewood High School students in the midst of stressing over midterm exams were given a reprieve over the past couple weeks, thanks to the timely arrival of some therapy dogs.
Robert Bell, the district’s supervisor of wellness, worked in conjunction with a non-profit called Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs in order to bring five specially trained canines to the high school over four mornings, allowing students to relax between exams and forget about their studies for a while.
“It’s a great opportunity for the kids,” Bell said, noting that the students really seemed to be enjoying themselves, as evidenced by the laughter ringing up and down the hallway.
According to Bell, Ridgewood High School is the first public school to attempt such a de-stressing technique. The program is often used at colleges and universities.
“In all of our research, we haven’t found a public high school that has tried this,” Bell said. “We specifically went for professionally trained dogs, working with outside organizations, bringing in five dogs a day and putting them in different locations throughout the building.”
He explained that the high school’s version of the event is a litmus test, by which the district’s administrators will decide if it is worth bringing to other Ridgewood schools. He also noted that other public schools have contacted the high school about the program.
“We get a lot of phone calls about it, just how this process is working,” Bell said. “I think there’s interest out there at the public school level.”
While the program seems to be an enjoyable one, it is also economically feasible, according to Bell.
I hope it was free.. otherwise a total self-indulgent feel good waste of money.
This dogs should be made available for Ridgewod residents after they speak at the council meetings
Is this parody? It is not April 1st is it? Therapy dogs for midterms?????? We cant pay the teachers but we have therapy dogs for midterms?
We are dropping in the academic standings, but it’s OK… we have stress relief dogs..
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Of course the worst part of it all is the abundance of back slapping and self-congratulating that the teachers and school admins are giving themselves over this leading edge educational breakthrough.
Woff Woff
Did anyone actually bother to read the article? “The nice thing is that Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs is a non-profit organization, so it’s completely free to the district,” . . . “It doesn’t cost us a thing.” So I don’t think we have to worry about how it will impact the teacher’s salaries.
It really is a silly, feel-good thing. Thank goodness they will be eliminating midterm exams next year. Colleges are going SAT optional.
Wait till they realize that colleges still have some standards. The students will be stressing over the professional curating of their short lives. What were your assomplishments in elementsry school? Did you start a business, a blog or save an endangered species. There will be competition to get in on paid trips to the Dominican Republic so they can play soccer with the kids. Competition for these alternate resume building events will be intense.
Get ready for a therapy kennel on campus, the competition is only changing not going away.
Your comments just prove why these kids are under so much pressure and riddled with anxiety. This was a FREE event, no classes were missed, and the students loved it. Can’t they just have a minute to smile? Read the studies about therapy dogs and anxiety. What are you as parents doing to help with the anxiety and stress? Medicating them?
As a matter of fact, several students asked about how to become trainers; not to pad their resumes, but because they felt it would be a meaningful way to give to the community. The teachers- who really care about their students- were very grateful to have the dogs there.
Damn union thugs are at it again… oh, wait a minute, this was no cost to the village….