Berkshire County school taking learning experience outside the classroom

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (NEWS10) —A lot of times in school, students may have a hard time focusing due to certain challenges. Because of this, the staff at Reid Middle School decided to partner with the Berkshire Humane Society as an alternative learning experience to help best accommodate student’s needs.

“In seventh grade, I was kind of getting anxious and stuff, so I wanted to kind of be more in a class, not a hallway and everything. So, I asked my mom, and she emailed here and I was able to come here and its way better,” said Ayana, an 8th grader at Reid Middle School.

Before this program started, the school came here last year for a field trip, but quickly realized it can be something more.

“We thought maybe we could turn this into a lesson and we could have more community relations and have more adults to be used as role models and mentors, as well as building empathy for the animals and call awareness to the animal shelters,” said Kristin Leonard, Innovation teacher at Reid Middle School.

These students come to the humane society once every month for six months and stay for two hours.

When the students come to the humane society they get to learn about animals, interact with them, and learn how to advocate for them. This experience also teaches them skills they can take back to the classroom to fit their needs and enhance their learning.

“You know they’ll learn how to train; they’ll learn about spay and neuter, they’ll learn how to take care of the animals and the way they need to be taken care of,” said Tricia Phillips, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Berkshire Humane Society.

Ever since covid, the humane society has been trying to bring back humane education and help build the relationship with the schools about animals, but also help the learning needs of the students.

“It was the Charles H. Hall Foundation who works with Berkshire County, and looks to fund programs for education, especially dealing with animal welfare. So, we were able to apply and were rewarded a grant so we could actually start this program,” said Nicole McKeen, the Director of Development and Marketing at Berkshire Humane Society.

Within this year, there has been an array of animal abuse cases. The school and the humane society believe this partnership can help prevent these types of situations.

“If we teach them properly and they learn, hopefully going forward we can. I don’t think it’ll ever end. I hate to say that, but hopefully it will decrease and they’ll learn properly,” said Phillips.

The school hopes to continue this program and get more students involved. Staff says they have seen a positive change in these students’ learning experience ever since they have come to the humane society the first time.