"All I can tell you is that's what's in the
books."
A for Honesty, Boohiss
for theory -or- The Perils of Parrots
 When I was a wee lass taking Trigonometry, my teacher Mr. Fanning
would lecture perhaps once a week about the Perils of Parrots. You
would think, in a Math class, why in the world was he on about
this?
He was old school. He would pace from the front of the room
to maybe three desks deep, tapping books as he passed, making eye
contact through his wire and horn-rimmed bifocals, pausing to let his
words sink in. He always wore a white pressed shirt, a bow tie,
and a tweed jacket. He shuffled a little slowly. When he met
your gaze, he considered the totality of you. He insisted on
interaction. He wanted a well considered response. He wanted
to reach our minds and get us to think.
He often seemed a little worried as he surveyed his glass of
young students.
"Sure, you can memorize the formula, and plug in the numbers,
but what good is that if you don't know what you're doing? If
that's all you're doing, you're just a parrot."
PAUSE
SURVEY THE ROOM
"And what does a parrot know? Why would you want to be
a parrot?
PAUSE
SURVEY THE ROOM
"No, this class is about understanding how things work."
PAUSE
SURVEY THE ROOM
Yes, sometimes he looked a little bit worried.
Fast forward to current day dressage.
Well, back up a few years to a lesson I was taking and the
instructor was telling me to do the usual ... inside leg, outside hand,
blah blah. And it worked, but I wanted to know why, so I asked:
"Why are doing this? How does it work?" The reply
I got was, "I'm not sure why, all I can tell you is it's in the
books."
UH? good thing I was on a horse, or I probably would've
fallen over. (but you know, it's harder with a horse under you.)
WHAT?! The only reason we do this is because it's in the
books?!?!
I expected something like "I noticed your horse was low at T3
and not stepping under with the left leg, but I didn't want him to
escape through the outside shoulder, which is what he's been doing the
first half of the circle. etc etc etc."
Which is to say *I* knew why I was doing it! But I was
pretty floored I was paying through the nose an instructor who
*didn't.*
And here we have the perils of parrots!
It's not like this instructor didn't have a good pedigree.
The names of some of the world's best were listed in it.
But of what use?!?! This person was throwing a formula at me
with no understanding of what it was to be used for. They didn't know why they were
doing what they were doing. They couldn't' read the horse to know
what it was doing. The basic level of understanding was: "Do
this until the horse goes right." And they didn't even know
what 'this' really was.
Yes, they could still recite a very impressive list of instructors, and
they had a horse that was successful (trained by one of those
instructors), and they are engaging and upbeat, BUT were they truly knowledgeable?
Needless to say, that was the last lesson with that person.
So, coming back to current day dressage, I think we're overrun with
parrots!
We now have students of instructors like that who are
'teaching.' (Yes, I know the USDF made a valiant effort to clean
house, but pull someone aside sometime and ask them how well that's
going!)
And here's what the problem is: that person I took lessons with doesn't know what they don't
know. They're saying the same words they heard. A
formula. They're getting
sort of the same results, so they think they're successful and knowledgeable
-- but they don't really know whether they are
getting the same results or not, to be honest, because they didn't
understand the concept and they didn't have the skill to see exactly
what was missing and needed to be addressed. And they don't really
have the skill to see whether or not they've achieved what they were
trying to accomplish.
They applied broad strokes to a detailed situation they didn't
even see.
There students who teach say the same words, too. With even
less understanding.
It's like those plastic toys that are supposed to look like
animals or dinosaurs or whatever but they're just globs of plastic because
the molds they came from weren't the originals.
And this is sadly rampant in the dressage world.
What can you do? Beware the parrots!!! Avoid
them!!! If they can't explain what's going on, question them
some more! I once had somebody proclaim they knew something --
said she had *certified* in it! and when I excitedly mentioned one of
the tenets of that branch of study, she didn't know what I was talking
about. Like, total blank stare looking at me, like I'd sprouted
another head. (another fall over moment)
I have seen other folks bald faced lie about knowing
something they were clearly ignorant of while charging an arm and a leg
to spread the misinformation.
They are parrots! And they don't know what they're saying. And
it's a conundrum!
No-one's asking my opinion, but this morning, as I rode around enjoying
the depth of knowledge I have and the benefit of the brilliant teachers
I've had, I was once again thinking
of Mr. Fanning and his weekly entreaties to think.
I am so incredibly thankful to him!
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