Lessons from Monty Roberts: Teaching vs. Learning

I finally got around to reading Monty Roberts' book "The Man who Listens to Horses" and I must say that I'm very impressed. The book is part biography and part tantalizing hints about horse behaviour, all wrapped up in a neat package.

If I try quoting each part that has stuck with me, I'd probably need to write a book of my own, so I'm just going to quote one:

"Knowledge, she told us, ...needs to be pulled into the brain by the student, not pushed into it by the teacher. Knowledge is not to be forced on anyone. The brain has to be receptive, malleable, and most important, hungry for that knowledge... To use the word 'teach' implies an injection of knowledge... there is no such thing as teaching, only learning." (The Man Who Listens to Horses, p87-88).

Now the great thing about this statement is that it can be applied to both people and horses. In fact, Roberts uses it as part of his teaching philosophy with horses. I'm in the same mindset as him; it's impossible to teach either a horse or a person something if they don't want to listen or learn. The trick is to get them interested and wanting to learn. Usually this will involve making learning fun, rewarding (either in the physical sense, with praise or treats, or mental sense), or easy. Or it could be a combination of all of the above.

What I'm really getting at is if you find yourself as the teacher getting frustrated with your students, be they two or four-legged, take a step back and ask yourself "Am I helping to facilitate learning or am I forcing knowledge right now?"

Call it a hunch, but some of my sessions with my students will probably go a lot easier from now on.

The importance of confidence

I was working with a particularly difficult horse today and the more frustrated I got, the less she responded to what I was asking her to do. I had to let her be for a few minutes while I got myself calmed down. Finally, I got back in the ring with her and projected a calm, confident aura to her and she responded positively to me and did what I asked her to.

This whole experience has reminded me of the importance of confidence. Confidence is one of those things that you take don't really notice when you have it and desperately want it when you don't. This is particularly true when dealing with horses. Horses can sense and respond to the energy that you're projecting and it's particularly helpful when you're projecting confidence.

It makes me wonder how much more effective I'll be in working with horses when I've done more leadership training. Maybe boosting my confidence in myself is what I need to be more confident around horses. I'll let you know.

Rupert Isaacson and The Horse Boy

Last week, I was fortunate to be at a screening of The Horse Boy in London followed by an appearance by Rupert Isaacson for a Q&A session. Isaacson runs a centre in Texas for autistic children and their siblings to socialise and interact with each other in a fun, low-stress setting.

I won't wax on how amazing the entire story of taking his autistic son to Mongolia to visit various shamans was, because of course it's amazing and if you're really interested, the book and film are available from Isaacson's website. What I will talk about is something that Isaacson said during the Q&A session after the movie.

Isaacson posed the question, why shouldn't we teach children where they want to be taught instead of using traditional methods where they have to be in a classroom? Why can't the outdoors be the new classroom? At his New Trails Center, children are free to choose where they want to learn, and as a consequence, the lessons are easier and tend to stick better. The key message that I took home was that autism is just another way of seeing the world, not something that should be seen as devastating and a disappointment. If you can learn to accomodate for a child's particular quirks, you can learn a lot.

Check out the short version of the story in Isaacson's own words: