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CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — Fourth-graders at Clive Learning Academy are getting a new addition to their classroom — and this one has four legs.
A goldendoodle named Bogey is the school district's first therapy dog, Des Moines television station KCCI reported (http://bit.ly/1So3HfQ ) Saturday.
It took some convincing by the students before administrators signed off. But the kids did their research, sharing with school officials that therapy dogs have been shown to help students manage anxiety, among other things.
"We've learned that test scores go up," said fourth-grade teacher Lisa Dolan. "We've learned that behavior improves."
And like generations of kids before them, the students won out by promising they'd take care of the dog.
They're not only going to be in charge of feeding, walking and cleaning up after Bogey, they raised the $2,300 to pay for him. The children wrote letters to people in the community to raise the money.
One letter read, "I am writing to ask for your support to raise enough money to keep our therapy dog happy and healthy."
The students are thrilled to share their school days with Bogey.
"It's going to be pretty funny because we don't have a dog walking down the halls every day," said student Ro Sang. "He's very shy, but he's a friendly dog."
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Information from: KCCI-TV, http://www.kcci.com
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