All Pawtucket All The Time

Mary Williams of Pawtucket, R.I., poses behind photographs of her four cats who help her “teach” her second-grade students at Dayspring Christian Academy of Attleboro, Mass. (Photo courtesy of Dayspring Christian Academy)

Pawtucket: Author Garrison Keilor once joked: “Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.”

At Dayspring Christian Academy of Attleboro, however, four cats in particular have a definitive purpose in life – as de facto “teacher aides” to students.

Second-grade teacher Mary Williams is an avowed cat-lover and has taken her affinity for the four-legged pets into her classroom, where her four pedigree Scottish Fold show cats have evolved during the past six years into “teachers” to students. Williams’ innovative approach to teaching has earned national acclaim and her students and their “teaching” cats are presently featured on a syndicated cable television program sponsored by Animal Planet (a network of the Discovery Channel).

“The students do things for the cats that they won’t do for me,” said Williams, a Pawtucket, R.I., resident. “The cats provide a common ground for everybody in the classroom.”

While the four cats – Wally, Mikey, DK and Duncan – actually exist, they only rarely show up for classes at DCA. However, they are always in Williams’ classroom in spirit where separate photographs of each animal are prominently displayed.

Each cat is assigned a specific subject to “teach” to DCA’s second-graders, who have exhibited a remarkable penchant over the years for obeying the desires of their animal instructors. Obviously, Williams is charged with disseminating the cats’ “instructions” to students and even maintains e-mail accounts for the felines to communicate with students.

“The cats teach the class,” said Williams. “I just follow their ‘orders.’”

Williams (who earned a bachelor’s degree at the State University of New York-Oswego) has taught at DCA since 1986. She said her creative method of grabbing and sustaining students’ interest did not result from advance planning.

“It was a totally spontaneous idea I had one day in class,” she said. “It was early in the school year and I was looking for a way to capture the students’ attention, so I pointed to the photos of the cats in the room and said they told me they wanted the kids to listen and learn. Since that day, the whole thing has snowballed.”

Williams’ unique teaching style was featured in the September 2006 issue of Cat Fancy magazine in a story entitled “Cats In The Classroom.” Her fame peaked this past September when a Boston-based film crew spent an afternoon at DCA filming the cats as they interacted with her second-graders.

“It was really a big deal for our kids and they had a blast with the cats and the film crew,” Williams said. “Fortunately, we prepared well for the day and it went off well.”

So well in fact that Williams and her students are featured in a seven-minute segment of the Animal Planet’s “Cats 101″ program, which initially aired Dec. 6 and is still occasionally broadcast on the network. The DCA contingent is also prominently mentioned on a current film clip on the network’s Web site (www.animal.discovery.com/tv/cats-101).

According to Williams, Animal Planet representatives desired to focus on Scottish Folds for their opening episode of the “Cats 101″ series and contacted a breeder (familiar with her teaching processes), who referred them to her. Obviously, the felines were required to make a “guest appearance” at school on the day of filming.

“”My husband, Don, brings the four cats to school once or twice every year and those are big occasions for the kids,” Williams said. “The cats are always well-behaved and are used to being held.”

Williams stressed the cats provide valuable “visual benefits” to her students, who typically make seamless transitions to different subjects in class based on which cat’s photograph is displayed on her desk. She also said the animals enhance the students’ learning environment.

“When the cats are here, they are hysterical and they encourage everyone to work together and have fun,” she said. “Everyone learns better when they’re having fun.”