'You can lead a horse to water and make it drink, if you give it salt'

(Dedicated to my friend Lance Fogle and his Pastor)

We've all heard the proverb 'You can lead a horse to water and but you can't make it drink' and we've probably agreed wholeheartedly. At work, you and I have probably seen co-workers like the proverbial horse. When I teach and train, I encounter participants who are like the said equine. So for as long as I can remember, I've never questioned the proverb.

Until I met Lance in June when he shared this blog entry's title with me, which was something he had heard from his pastor. What a paradigm shift and an epiphany, that statement was for me! I had never fully questioned why the horse didn't want to drink. I had assumed, now incorrectly, that the horse was as stubborn as it's close relative, the mule. I had not thought that maybe the water was foul-tasting. Or maybe the horse wasn't thirsty enough.

As educators in the largest possible sense, we probably think that with our training, intellect, know-how etc, why shouldn't/wouldn't anyone not want to listen or learn from us? Yet by thinking this way, we have removed ourselves from the most important position in the learning process - standing in the learner's shoes.

Maybe our learners at home and in school don't want to learn because the material has not been contextualised enough. Perhaps the material has been 'fouled-up', overcomplicated to such an extent that the learner can no longer see its value or relevance to him.

Maybe our learners are not 'thirsty' enough. That is, they have not come to the position when they have a real need to learn the material. Perhaps we have not aroused the learner's innate curiosity enough. Perhaps we have not created sufficient security for the learner to step out from his comfort zone and say 'I don't know about this. Can you tell me more?'. Perhaps we have not given enough 'salt' or motivation for the learner to be 'thirsty' again, to seek out the 'fount' of knowledge for himself.

Lance's words gave me a new way to look at what I need to bring to the learning process, not just for the people that I train, but also for myself. Am I modelling the very same behaviours that I expect them to have?

So Lance, thank you for sharing that insight. You probably didn't know how much it spoke to me.

Noel Tan
(*All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers)