Lessons From the Farm

Sometime between 5th and 6th grade my father became a farm manager, and over the next 8 years I grow up working cattle in one way or another. While the image below is not from that time (borrowed from the internet) but will give you a reference for my thoughts in this post.

One of my earliest memories involves standing at the top of a small hill and using arm signals to direct our cattle dog to bring the herd up from the bottom of the field. We would then collect them in a corral so that we could do whatever was needed. Having the cows in a smaller enclosure made it easier to capture, hold, and treat sick animals, inoculate for disease, and complete other needed checks. We could separate cows from calves, isolate individuals, and divide them into smaller subgroups and then direct them to the appropriate pasture based on needs of the animal and productivity of plants within each "field".

While on these farms I learned that working with animals required a certain temperament, one that was able to remain calm and not allow frustrations to cloud thinking and interaction with the animals. I remember my oldest brother taking two hind feet to his chest, watching my dad nearly being bucked off, and I have been bit by a horse and knocked down by an overstressed animals. Each of these experiences, and more, have influenced me over the years. In fact, one of the strongest memories I have is taking a horse for a ride when I was 17 years old. One day while out riding this particular horse it kept wanting to turn around and run back to the barn and I was becoming increasing frustrated with it. Finally, after a series of times redirecting the horse in the direction I wanted to go, I kicked the horse in ribs and started running down the side of the gravel road away from the barn. I thought to myself that if it didn't want to listen I would just run it until it was tired, taking a bit of the fight out of it at the same time. We were cruising along when the horse noticed a lane off to our left and turned. Directly in front of us was a steel gate and the horse came to an abrupt stop and I went flying over the front of the horse. I landing in a heap, on the ground, somehow managing to hang onto one of the reigns and keeping the horse from running off.

(Photo by Mikhail Kondrashov from Horse Illustrated Magazine)

I have found that, just like the animals I worked with on those farms, individuals within learning environments must be "handled" in a way that limits the stress placed upon them. People do not want to rounded up and placed in "small enclosures" and "managed" under stressful uncomfortable situations. If learning environments and activities are not "handled" in the right way there can be far reaching consequences. In animals I have seen this manifest as cows who take off running as they come in sight of the barn, dogs biting at the hand trying to help them, and horses kicking at people when they come close. People develop knee-jerk reactions based on past experiences so is it any wonder that we have students in our classrooms who refuse to work, participate, or even engage with the learning experience when past experiences have been traumatic.

As educators we need to recognize when our students are becoming over taxed or stressed. We then need to begin measures directed towards reducing the stress in a positive way. We need to recognize that student reactions in our classrooms may have absolutely nothing to do with us, rather the displayed behavior may be a conditioned response based on past experiences. Our response to their actions have everything to do with our ability to control our own frustrations while helping them move beyond these stressors and retrain themselves within a more caring environment. Yes, we as teachers also carry with us learned behaviors from previous stressful teaching experiences. Perhaps this is why I believe that education is one of the most important and rewarding professions we can choose, and why it is also one of the most important professions to ensure we provide the most appropriate forms of training.