Animals

The guidance counselor/psychologist type person at a school I worked at told me once that animals don’t have emotions the same way we do.  She said that we are simply projecting our emotions onto them.  She was an educated woman, good at her job, and sincere in this new psychological “truth” she was describing to me.  I was polite.  It’s better not to contradict people.  But I have worked with animals all my life and I knew she was dead wrong.

Maybe this is why experiential education is so important.  She had never seen the relief of the cows after milking or watched them kick up their heels when they escaped to munch on the apple tree in the front yard.  She had never returned to a dog bouncing with limitless joy at her return.  Nor had she ever been snubbed by a dog because you broke one of the “rules.  

Emotion and understanding, even sentience in general, are not things you can measure even in humans.  You need to develop an understanding within yourself that you simply can’t find in a book.  You’ve got to spend time in the field, just watching, observing, and learning.  Book study is important because it can give you a short cut to the learning and experience of those who have gone before you.  But nothing can replace personal experience.