My husband and I own three horses. We have fenced off the field and made three pastures and a paddock. One of the horses is a miniature Snowflake Appaloosa. Most of the time we keep him in a "dry lot" because too many rich nutrients from the grass will make him fat and cause other health problems. The other two, both full-size horses, rotate through the pastures. Last night the two horses were able to roam freely between two fenced areas, one of which is adjacent to the paddock where the mini grazes.
Normally, when the horses see me heading toward the barn, they react as Ivan Pavlov's dogs did in his famous "conditioned reflex" experiments of the early 20th century. The horses will gallop toward me, wait for me to open the gate, and walk alongside me into the barn. I changed the routine this morning because the gate was not closed. I cleaned the stalls, put the horse feed in the appropriate buckets, locked the mini in his stall, and opened the paddock gate. I truly was perplexed. Why were the horses still in the outer pasture? Why had they not come in?
My mind rushed back to the time I learned of a conditioned reflex study with a piranha. My late husband and I were attending one of his company's dinner events. The keynote speaker told us about an experiment in which a glass partition divided an aquarium in half. On one side was a piranha; on the other side was a school of goldfish. Every time the piranha tried to eat the goldfish, it would bump into the glass. It did this many times. Eventually, the piranha quit trying to get the goldfish and swam in circles in its side of the tank. Noticing the piranha no longer tried to approach the goldfish, the researcher removed the partition. The piranha easily could have devoured the goldfish. Instead it continued to swim in circles. Around and around and around. It never again tried to attack the goldfish. The piranha had given up; it had shut down after failing so many times.
I've seen students who react like the piranha. They try and try to read the sentences or complete the math problems, but they just can't get it. The students are promoted without having mastered basic skills - and without anyone having identified why the learning is muddled - the work becomes more complex, and eventually these students shut down.
Is learning over for them? No, but the right conditions must be in place for learning to occur, and it will not happen overnight. These students need a lot of encouragement and support academically, and many will need support socially and behaviorally. They have thought of themselves as failures for so long; they need help to recognize their strengths. It also helps to remind them to not give up. If the piranha had tried just one more time, it would have been successful.
Why did my horses behave as they did this morning? Do I think my horses have shut down because I had to walk to the outer pasture and lead them in? No. Like Pavlov's dogs, the horses are conditioned to a routine. I disturbed that routine by assuming they knew the gate was open.
How many times have we as teachers and parents changed our routines or "assumed" and become annoyed when our children protest? Most of the time, the children do not have the language skills or the maturity to work through the immediate change of routine. Children and animals (and husbands) like routine, and surprising them with change often leads to BIG headaches! Tomorrow morning I will not assume my horses know the gate is open. I will go back to the old routine of greeting them at the gate and enjoy our walk to the barn.
