Doug Peterson grew up in St. James, MN. The first in his family to attend college, he went to Mankato State University to become a teacher, and then moved to Northfield in 1966 to teach sixth grade. He is married to Mary Kay Peterson, and they have two children, Jeff and Jodi. In 1969, he took a break from teaching to get his master’s degree in elementary school guidance counseling at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he learned about the DUSO program. Upon his return to Northfield in 1970, he began working as an elementary guidance counselor. Mr. Peterson implemented DUSO and the other puppets in his visits to classrooms at Sibley, Washington, Longfellow, Greenvale Park, Dundas, and Castle Rock elementary schools. The puppets were specifically part of counseling through second grade. Mr. Peterson retired from counseling in 1998 and went back to teaching at Sibley Elementary for the last few years of his career, and the DUSO program and the use of puppets ended at this time due to a lack of funding from the Northfield school district. Doug Peterson and his wife, Mary Kay Peterson, in 1987

Mr. Peterson was a major advocate for the need for elementary guidance in schools. He was the Vice President/Elementary of the Minnesota School Counselors Association (MSCA) and lobbied for legislation that would provide funding and support for guidance counselors in elementary school. In 1986, he was recognized as the Minnesota Elementary Guidance Counselor of the Year, and the following year, he was a runner-up for National Elementary Counselor of the Year. He also was nominated for the 1991 Minnesota Excellence in Education Award. 

Doug Peterson is remembered not only for the usage of the DUSO puppets but also because of the kindness and empathy he showed to his students. His wife, Mary Kay Peterson, describes him as a “man of integrity” which made him an exceptional role model. Doug attributes this quality to his mother, who taught him important lessons that he carried throughout his entire life. 

Mr. Peterson’s puppetry is similar to works like Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, The Muppets, and Sesame Street, which were popular at around the same time. These programs also used puppets to teach and entertain children, although the DUSO program was scientifically proven to be an effective guidance program (Rusch & Dinkmeyer, 1971). In a paper published by Andres et. al in 1986 titled Reliability and concurrent validity of the DUSO Affectivity Assessment Device, it was found that DUSO demonstrated good reliability (produced consistent results when used across different contexts) and also had strong concurrent validity (correlates well with other established measures of affectivity).” This supports the idea that the DUSO program is a valid tool for assessing emotional responses. c

Doug Peterson made a major impact on Northfield and several generations of kids growing up and attending school here. Throughout his time as a teacher and elementary school guidance counselor in Northfield, Dundas, and Castle Rock, his use of puppets in the classroom to teach kids about life and themselves was an essential part of his work. When he implemented DUSO in 1970 and began teaching with puppets, kids immediately connected with the puppets and learned from them. The DUSO program was also used in other school districts across the country beginning in 1970, and, as in Northfield, had positive impacts on elementary-aged children. The company behind DUSO, American Guidance Services, reported in 1982 that over a ten year period, “more than 150,000 DUSO kits were sold”. In a paper published in a 1973 edition of Elementary School Guidance and Counseling, the authors discuss a previous study in which “participants in the DUSO program reported being more self-reliant and having a greater feeling of belonging than did nonparticipants”.

Puppets came alive to the kids, who responded to and found connection with them more easily than with an adult. The puppets were such a success that Mr. Peterson used them for the rest of his career. After he retired from counseling in 1998 and went back to being a teacher, however, the DUSO program and use of puppets in the classroom did not continue, due to a lack of district funding and the difficulties of the job. But the power of the puppet remained in the memories of students Doug Peterson worked with. Even now, years later, former students still come up to him in public with stories of their time in the classroom with the puppets. 

DUSO (Developing Understanding of Self and Others) was started in 1970 as a program of activities for guidance counselors to “help children understand social-emotional behavior.” Intended for primary school children, the program focused on understanding emotions, other people’s feelings, independence, and purposeful behavior, among other themes. These lessons were partially presented in the form of puppetry, with the eponymous DUSO the Dolphin reading stories and engaging children in discussion. 

As Doug Peterson wrote in 2017: “At the beginning of each class time the students would gather in a close knit group in front of me as I opened the kit and turned on a tape player. The students would sing the “Hey DUSO Come on out Song.” I put the puppet on my hand right in front of them and placed DUSO the Dolphin on top of the lap book and the story began. Within moments they were in their own world learning about self and others. After 4 pages and just a few minutes later the story ended and we sang the “So Long DUSO” song as DUSO returned to his box home. We were then ready to discuss the main idea that DUSO had shared with us in the story.” 

Mr. Peterson, along with DUSO, Jay Hawk, Snoopy, Chilly Willy, and Puff the Magic Dragon, provided guidance and support for hundreds of elementary school children over 18 years. The use of puppets in the classroom was a success in helping young children gain self-reliance and understanding of themselves and the world. Children were able to understand what Mr. Peterson calls the “power of the puppet.”