Readers ask ,Therapy Dogs for Midterms Self-indulgent waste or kids are under so much pressure and riddled with anxiety?

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..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.

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 accomplishments in elementary 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.

but some readers were far more forgiving ….

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

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.