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FEBRUARY 2007 • VOLUME 18 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
Intrinsic Learning
“In my paper I stated that, from a behaviorist point of view, there was no such thing as teaching, only learning. I stated that knowledge needed to be voluntarily pulled into the brain by the student and that it was very difficult to push knowledge into an unwilling brain." Monty Roberts The above statement can be a difficult concept to grasp. The idea that we cannot teach but only learn seems to go against everything that our civilization is set up to do. If teaching doesn't work, then why are teachers held in such high regard? If teaching doesn't work, then why have schools? If teaching doesn't work, why bother getting a Ph.D. to become a professor at a college or university? In horsemanship there is no higher regard than for the teacher. In classical dressage, teachers are referred to as masters. Masters, designating that this person has gained a mastery of his craft to the extent that this is the person that we can truly respect and share in his experience and knowledge to help the next generation along. So how can one say that there is no such thing as teaching? How can we learn anything if we don't have teachers?  What
is difficult to understand is that teaching is not really about
teaching. It is first and foremost about learning. You
cannot be a teacher if there is no one at the other end learning.
If there is no one learning, then you have not taught anything to
anyone.Simply having a warm body in front of you doesn't make you a teacher either. We can teach and teach and teach, but it does not mean that the person or animal that you are working with comprehends, understands or has absorbed the knowledge that you want to share with them. No matter how hard you try, taking a canary and trying to teach it to sing 'Ave Maria'... chances are you will not find yourself very successful. It is the learner that determines whether or not learning has occurred. Learning can only be taken in by the learner. We cannot force knowledge into the brain of another living creature. We can present the material and wait to see what portions of that material or knowledge will be absorbed by the learner. We can try to present material in the best way possible to increase the likelihood that the learner will take the information given, and take it on board. But we cannot force it into an unwilling brain. If we take the concept of intrinsic learning on board and integrate it into our training methods, whether we talk about training the rider or we talk about training the horse, it provides us with a brand new way of thinking about how we should be teaching.
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