Cowboy to tame unruly British brats

Monty Roberts, aka "the horse whisperer", has been signed on to conduct a three day education workshop in England. Sir Mike Tomlinson, former chief inspector of schools is enthusiastic:

'Some people might think it's wacky to turn to an approach best known for horses, but this also has interesting things to say about children,' said Tomlinson. 'We think it's worthwhile listening to Roberts's opinions and to expose our headteachers to different and interesting people who have ideas that might be of use to them,

'We want to try everything that is innovative and interesting for headteachers; we want to encourage them to question current practice. We want to explore difficult and different areas [in education].'

The key to Roberts's approach to horses is what he calls 'join-up': the moment a wild horse chooses to initiate contact and nuzzles the trainer. He said teachers must achieve an identical moment of breakthrough with children.

'Horses and children are almost identical emotionally and psychologically: they are both flight animals who wish to avoid trouble, but will become first bashful, then aggressive, if intimidated.'

British education authorities are desperate. Reasoning with the kiddies hasn't worked; maybe it's time to try the "sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up" approach. Just a thought.


Update: Contrary to Amelia Hill's reporting in the original article in The Observer, Monty Roberts is not the original horse whisperer, did not inspire the book and doesn't claim to be a horse whisperer. He bills himself as "the man who listens to horses". Hill reports Roberts is Canadian; if he is, it's by birth only; he grew up in Salinas, California.

Amelia Hill fails to mention that Roberts runs the Monty Roberts International Learning Center (MRILC), which trained more than 140 students last year using his nonviolent methods. This doesn't guarantee his methods will succeed in England but, he's not the education novice Hill makes him out to be.