Social-Emotional Learning | About The Mutt-i-grees® Curriculum

Launched in 2010, our Mutt-i-grees^® Curriculum uses the natural affinity between kids and pets to teach social-emotional learning (SEL) skills that are critical to academic success and a successful life. Where would be in our lives without empathy, self-confidence, teamwork, and ethical decision-making. What makes our program unique is its experiential component. Via humane education we connect students to the plight of shelter animals and the importance of rescue. The students take this journey and learn how shelter animals make wonderful companions, and that all of us — including kids — have the power to make a positive difference in our communities and in the lives of homeless animals.

The Curriculum was developed by Yale University’s School of the 21st Century in partnership with North Shore Animal League America. Today, our versatile Curriculum, is used in schools, afterschool programs, special education settings, and other venues. Additional versions: “Mutt-i-grees in the Library,” “Cats Are Mutt-i-grees 2,” “The Shelter Guide,” and “Paws Down Tails Up,” a physical fitness application and Muttigrees At Home for parents and caretakers.

Research has shown that, by bridging the fields of humane education and social and emotional learning, this Curriculum has the potential to enhance student achievement at all grade levels. Equally important, it inspires kids to become caring, responsible citizens who see the link between a civil society and the humane treatment of animals.

Meet the Mutt-i-grees Team

Matia Finn-Stevenson, Phd

Creator and
Chief Knowledge Officer

Matia Finn-Stevenson is a Clinical Professor and Research Scientist at Yale School of Medicine, Child Study Center, where she is also the Director of the School of the 21st Century. Her work focuses on children’s development and education reform with emphasis on the application of research to policy and practice. She has been instrumental in the development of several national programs. Most recently she created the social and emotional learning model that is the basis for the Mutt-i-grees^® Curriculum, a program developed in collaboration with the Pet Savers Foundation and Yale University. Dr. Finn-Stevenson is also establishing efforts at Yale to examine the benefits of human-animal interactions and their implications for children’s development and education.

Dr. Finn-Stevenson is the author and co-author of numerous publications related to school reform, evaluation of school-based support services, and child development and social policy. Among her publications are books entitled Children in the Changing World; The School of the 21st Century: Linking Child Care and Education; Child Development and Social Policy; and The First Three Years and Beyond: Brain Development and Social Policy. She has been an advisor on domestic policy issues to the staff of the White House Office of Policy Development and a consultant to the Connecticut legislature’s Committee on Work and Family, the Committee on Education and Labor, the U. S. House of Representatives, and the U. S. Senate Subcommittee on Children, Youth, Families, Alcohol, and Drug Abuse. She regularly advises school districts and state departments of education on programs and services for children and serves as a consultant to state and federal policymakers and foundations. Dr. Finn-Stevenson earned her doctorate from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology at Yale University.