What we can learn from the learning patterns of Birds
One day I was in my office working away with Ricky and Daisy
playing close by when all of a sudden, Daisy grabbed a plastic jar lid and
pushed it across the carpet like it was a hockey puck. I thought this was very
amusing so I did what most proud pet owners and parents would do. I got out my
video camera and recorded her playing with her new toy. A friend of mine who
watched the video said that this was amazing and asked how long it taught me to
teach her this. I responded “I did not teach her a thing, she did this all by
herself.”
Daisy is always curious about the world around her; she will
look at a door handle and study it with great detail. Lately she has grown
curious about the cabinets underneath the sink in the bathroom. Whenever she
gets close to the cabinet doors, she will fly over to the doors and get as
close as she can to spend time studying them from every angle. You can see the
little wheels turning in her head as she walks in circles or flies closer to
get a better look at something.
One day I opened the cabinet doors for her to walk in and take
a look around. She did so and spent time investigating, touching things with
her beak and looking around but did not seem quite as interested as what was
inside the cabinet as much as the wooden doors themselves. Why she likes them,
I have no idea but it is that insatiable curiosity that keeps her learning and
intrigued about the world around her.
What is interesting is she never seems to grow bored, her curiosity
grows and she investigates other things too that catch her attention that she
may not have paid attention to before.
Along with that sense of curiosity is the desire to play.
Picking up a plastic jar lid and running across the room with it like she was
Wayne Gretzky was something that she did one day and has continued to do
constantly ever since. Now, she has a whole collection of plastic milk bottle
and jar lids that she will take and throw, toss and push across the room like a
hockey puck. Her partner, Ricky, does not share the same enthusiasm that she
has for playing hockey, but he will play along with her side by side to keep
her company.
What I learned from all these observations is that these
birds love to amuse and entertain themselves by playing, just like any child
would do. I had previously read about this in books about Parrotlet birds, so this was not news to me but what was a
revelation to me was how they learn by playing. They learn how to take a flat
disk and run with it along a carpet to emulate a hockey puck, they learn how to
turn a pull chord from window blinds into an acrobatic swing and they learn to
peel off sticker labels with patience and determination.
Why do they do these things? Because it is fun and it gives
them a sense of accomplishment. After all, they are birds and they have time on
their hands to eat, sleep and play.
Play, I have learned, is paramount to learning for these
animals and to all animals. Animals learn by playing and they learn by being
aware of their surroundings and studying things. Birds are natural problem
solvers and will study something to figure out how it works, no matter how long
it takes.
By the same token, how much more effective would we as
humans be at learning if we realized that learning can and should be fun? Sure
we tell our children and we tell ourselves that learning is fun but when you
walk into the average school or college campus, it is all business. No one is
laughing, no one is playing, it is rigorous, it is silent and it is stressful.
Children play and learn to interact with other children and how
to get along with others. They play with an erector set and learn to become an
engineer. They get out a crayon and a piece of paper and suddenly, they are an
Artist. Actually, all children are artists until they grow up and the world
tells them to ‘stop doing that’. The trick is to keep allowing them to be
artists all the way through adulthood and inspire others to do the same.
Society, parents, employers and especially schools, have
taken education and made it a rigorous, stressful and overwhelming job. Where
is the fun in memorizing and having to pass an exam to make a grade or get a
promotion at work? Where is the joy in laboring over a report or term paper all
week or weekend long? Yes the end result is the same. We learn from this task
but could the same result be obtained by watching a movie on a subject or
taking a trip to a museum?
If we can take the stress out of learning for children and
adults, how much more rewarding would it be and how much more would students
retain what they learn? If we can follow the example of a little bird flying
around a room , playing with its toys, studying its own environment and
watching what she comes up with and how she reacts to her world, can’t we create
the same kind of fun learning experiences as humans?
What would we have to lose? Do we dare allow our children to
dream, to play and to interact with their world to learn at their own pace? As
an Educator, artist and engineer, I keep hearing about a change that is about
to take place in education and I am excited about the possibilities that idea
presents.
Imagine a world where children and animals become our
teachers and we as adults, learn to relax, laugh and experience the world that
we have taken for granted through their eyes. Imagine the world of wonder it
would reveal and the possibilities that would present themselves. Maybe it is
time that education be turned upside down and we put the fun back in learning.
We learn something new every day, whether we realize it or not.
What would that do to our health? Our blood pressure? Our
anxiety levels and stress levels? How would that strengthen the bond between
parents and children? Bosses and employees? Teachers and students? Think of the
possibilities and the resulting relationships that would form.
The trick then to making education a fun experience is not
to put the emphasis on learning itself but on enjoying the process and allow
education to be a result of that experience. We need to reeducate our teachers,
parents and ourselves to approach education from a different angle. In so
doing, we would change the face of education and the negative attitudes towards
it and end up changing society and the world around us.
-
Rick Short, March 2013.