Attention, compassionate educators! And if you’re not an educator, a homeschool tutor, or a parent, you know at least one—the teacher of a child in your life, an employee at your local library, or a friend with children 18 or younger.

PETA’s humane education division, TeachKind, is here to help all educators, schools, and parents promote compassion for animals through free lessons, virtual classroom presentations, free materials, advice, online resources, and more. TeachKind is staffed by former classroom teachers from a range of disciplines and grade levels. This allows us to work with a variety of educators who feel at ease knowing that we have experience in the classroom.

This year marks TeachKind’s 20^th anniversary! One of the ways we are celebrating 20 years of bringing animal rights into the classroom is by hosting four vegan food giveaways for teachers throughout the year. Keep an eye on TeachKind for more. We’re also sharing our top resources, so you can help spread compassion to every young person you know!

• “Share the World” is TeachKind’s empathy-building elementary school curriculum kit. It includes printable and digital worksheets, a teacher’s guide, a classroom poster with an anti-bullying message, and a 23-minute video that features inspiring animal stories, amazing facts, easy-to-understand analogies that help students appreciate someone else’s point of view, and age-appropriate information on the Golden Rule and how kids can help save animals.
• SynFrog is a hyper-realistic frog model that can replace real frogs in classroom dissections. It provides a hands-on learning experience without dead animals, trauma, or toxic chemicals.
• “Challenging Assumptions” is our signature social justice–themed curriculum kit for middle and high school students. It includes lesson plans that examine the intersections of animal rights and other social justice issues. These lessons are designed to educate and empower students to challenge societal norms—such as speciesism—and develop compassion and empathy toward others, regardless of species, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or ability.
• Our Kids Hurting Animals website and step-by-step trauma-informed guide help educators talk to students of all ages about youth violence against animals and the importance of always speaking up when they hear about or see someone hurting an animal. Since 2013, TeachKind has been keeping track of reported cases of cruelty to animals carried out by children and teens. To help prevent future violence, in each case, we immediately contact the local school district and provide these resources to help address the incident with students and begin implementing lessons on compassion.
• PETA’s animal-friendly idioms and our other compassionate language resources teach children that the language we use to talk about animals has the power either to help them or to harm them. Using compassionate language conventions conveys that animals are living beings with thoughts and feelings, not inanimate objects. Our middle and high school level lessons on language include posters designed for the secondary school classroom. We also offer lessons for grades K–2 and 3–5 on the importance of referring to animals using personal pronouns, such as “he,” “she,” or “they”—rather than the impersonal “it.” Teaching young children that animals aren’t “things” is vital when they’re learning to sort nouns into the categories of “person,” “place,” or “thing”—animals belong in the “person” category! If the idea that animals belong to the “person” category is too abstract for students, provide them with a fourth category—“animals.”

We know that educators have the power to plant seeds that can grow into a passion for helping others. With the help of our supporters, PETA’s TeachKind will inspire the next generation to show empathy for all.

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If you’re an educator, please sign up for TeachKind News and follow TeachKind on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Teachers Pay Teachers. And no matter what your career is, please share this blog post and all of TeachKind’s resources with everyone you know—and encourage them to share with the educators in their life, too!