Blog #54--Learning Requires Motivation

Newborn infants of every species have much to learn. Survival is tantamount. Whether it is a newborn fish that must use instincts without protection from parents or a completely helpless human child, we must all think fast in a world where everything eats everything else.

It is often easier to observe early learning in species other than humans because they become adults much faster. There is an eagerness to learn that continues until necessary survival techniques are understood and made manifest. As a small animal veterinarian, I’ve seen many kittens, puppies and other mammalian infants observing us and other animals carefully to copy what works for them.

My wife and I had a couple cats named Sheba and Samson. Sheba loved to play with a small ball on our stairway. I’d throw the ball up the stairs, and Sheba would run after it and then knock it back down the stairs so I could throw it again. We did this many times until one day Sheba decided to quit. Right in the middle of a session, she stared at me and then walked away, never to play the game again. It was like she was telling me, “I don’t play child games anymore.”

She was demonstrating that her days of childlike enthusiasm for learning had ended. She now had all the knowledge she’d need to survive in our home for 15 years, so new learning ceased. On the other hand, Samson never lost his childlike enthusiasm for life. He continued to learn, even coming up with new games to play as an older cat.

He loved to play fetch and would carry a ball or rubber band back to us in his mouth so we could throw it again. He continued this behavior long after Sheba shut down her child ego state. His eagerness to learn continued throughout his life.

This same dichotomy is true for humans. Some of us are eager life-long learners, while others shut down much earlier. The latter group may not understand themselves or others, but they have a variety of survival strategies that make extra knowledge unnecessary for their particular lifestyle. For example, some people are so good at manipulating others into doing their bidding, they need learn little else. Eventually, someone will give them what they want.

I bring this up as a reaction to those parents who think a child can and should be molded like a piece of clay into whatever kind of person they prefer. It doesn’t work, but much of society encourages the effort. Trouble is, we don’t always know how our children’s lives will unfold or what they need to learn most. And we are unsure when the shutoff valve in their genes will take hold.

Many believe a small child should be shielded from the realities of life, preventing them from learning survival lessons at a time they are most capable of absorbing them. All species are most eager to learn as youngsters, so delaying opportunities to learn may backfire. For instance, some of us use “baby talk” when communicating with newborn children. While this may stimulate right-brain creativity, it discourages rational thought and delays language development.

Newborns don’t yet understand our language, but they constantly observe our body language and voice intonation to associate with the words we use. That is how they learn the language of their parents. We may not notice learning occurring until a child is old enough to speak fluently. But every waking second is an opportunity to learn something new, and every tidbit adds to what has come before. The more we can speak to them in our adult language, the quicker they can learn complexities of the language, and the sooner they can become responsible for their own welfare.

Other species do this also. We don’t notice the similarities because they can’t speak our language. But they need to distinguish friend from foe, so they are constantly looking for clues to aid that effort. If they live with humans, they learn our language well enough to respond to basic statements and commands.

And since they communicate more with telepathy than any kind of sound, they understand our hearts and minds even better. For instance, I once had a dog named Ginger that always knew when I was going to the bank because she was given a dog bone there. She was at the door waiting for me whenever I was ready to depart for the bank.

Children are never too young to learn, just too young to prove it to our satisfaction. If we assume they want to learn, there is greater chance learning will occur than if we force them to remain infantile. However, forcing something upon a child who simply isn’t capable of doing it discourages future learning and harms their relationship with us. If we give a child opportunities to learn and then trust they will learn what they need to survive, our chances of raising competent adults is maximized.

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