THE PARROT'S TRAINING

In ‘The Parrot’s Training’, we are told of a golden cage that is built to imprison a wild and uncivilized parrot so that she could be properly educated. In addition to the usual school curriculum, she was also expected to learn to listen and obey. She was allowed to question but within the structure and not question the structure itself. First, the teachers tried stuffing her with pages of the official textbooks. Days went by but that did not work. Then teachers, educators came together to brainstorm on some creative means to make things more interesting. More activity based things were introduced to drill the concepts in. A UNICEF project came with all kinds of child-friendly and joyful techniques. The cage was decorated with all sorts of colourful pictures and charts. There was a blip in interest, but it died as soon as it came. The educators from all over came together to talk once again. They decided that more investment is required in the system. The World Bank was approached. It gave a loan to the king to build a bigger cage with a nice toilet. A software company gave her a laptop with free internet connection. Many other facilities were added. But still, there was no considerable difference in parrot’s attitude towards learning! Finally the intellectuals came in and debated for days. It was decided that researchers from the Harvard researchers should be invited to conduct studies on the parrot’s brain and multiple intelligences. They came and as a result many papers were published, and many a books were written. The parrot’s case became famous, however, it’s personal condition only worsened. As her distress increased she was given mindfulness training. They also taught her about child rights. Some concerned individual advised the parrot needs sometime alone. Not understanding what he or she truly meant, an hour of silence and meditation was included in the already overly packed timetable.

The only thing parrot was not allowed to do was the little thing she so dearly wanted to do – to leave the cage. Whenever she tried to break out she was put in back. In fact, she was scolded for being ungrateful and impertinent. Time and again she was reprimanded, “We are doing so much for you, spending so much on you and you do not even care.”

Over the years parrot did end up learning a few things but lost the interest in learning itself. She slowly became dependent on the very cage she earlier wanted to break out from. She internalized the fact that the people around her were indeed doing a favor to her; that she and eventually her children too needs support of this wonderful cage. One day the cage was accidentally left open but she was afraid to venture out. Her dreams were reduced to being a rat in the rat-race. Slowly her spirit withered away. In the end, a lot of people made a lot of money on the parrot’s education, everyone benefited except the parrot.

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