Because having an animal pet in an elementary school classroom has been a thing since who knows how long ago?

How many books and TV shows for children (and even adult shows involving children) are about something bad happening involving the class pet?

There’s even a pet in Lisa’s class that showed up on The Simpsons sometimes until Lisa killed him: https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Nibbles

Teaching responsibility by showing what you have to do in order to properly care for a pet sounds like a good way to teach it to me.