Sheep Make Stupid Chickens
| May 8, 2012 | Posted by Issa under Homesteading |
It’s popular to comment on the presumed intelligence of farm animals. People like to say, “Chickens are stupid,” “Sheep are stupid,” or “Pigs are smart.”
I’ve seen chickens do some really smart things. They are experts at finding food in their environment, for example. I’ve seen sheep be pretty smart, too. They are extremely adept at using their speed and the available space to keep away from you, even when it seems like it’s a small enough space that you ought to be able to catch them.
I don’t know how pigs got to be the smart ones. I’ve certainly seen them do some pretty dumb things. They are smart in their own way, too, though.
And that’s the key: “in their own way”.
Chickens are smart chickens. Sheep are smart sheep. Pigs are smart pigs.
I’d make a stupid sheep. Sheep are stupid chickens. Chickens are stupid pigs.
It’s important to remember what’s what and who is who! It makes it easier to be proud of what we can do and not need to put others down.
For some reason this made me think of the “idiot savants” (I hope that’s not an offensive term?! You never know when the PC police are going to decide that there are certain things we can’t say. I just can’t think of a better phrase for the condition.) It’s as though everyone gets a certain amount of intelligence, and all of theirs goes into one certain category and the others get neglected.
I’d love it if the schools would take into account that not only do people have different levels of intelligence in different subjects/areas of life, but that they might even approach that knowledge from a different direction. It takes all kinds!!! :)
I agree about schools. The one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t fit very many people at all.
When I wonder about whether a term might be offensive, I don’t like to think of “the PC police”. I like to think about whoever it is I’m talking about and what their opinions are on the words I’m using to describe them. Googling a bit turned up for me that the “idiot” part is no longer used as part of the diagnosis of “savantism”. I also turned up lots of autistic people talking about how thinking they’re a savant every time they demonstrate that they are proficient at something is insulting – it amounts to expressing surprise that they are capable of things at all.
I appreciate you looking that up for me. I confess to being lazy and/or over-stretching my abilities at commenting in the four or five minutes break I get in between all the various chores I have to do and children I have to attend to during the day… Is there a better term I should be using? I really don’t want to be a jerk about it. I just knew if I used that term you’d know what I meant. (Not that that justifies using a word!)
Honestly, I couldn’t really suggest a term. I don’t know any people who fit that idea, so anything I might say using them as an example or illustration is likely to be stereotypical and risks being harmful. I think your larger point about people having smarts in different areas of life and about people learning in different ways stands all on its own without bringing up a category of people (that neither of us seems to know much about!) as an example.
I thought about people and different learning styles as I read this post. I also thought about how cruel people can be when people are different, evident in the comments of your previous post. If only people could learn to embrace the differences in one another. Great post, thank you! I wanted to let you know that I just awarded you the versatile blogger award. You may have gotten this before but I really wanted to honor you!
I forgot to give you the link where I posted the award. Sorry, I am new to all of this!
http://www.earthmamasworld.com/gluten-free-almond-flour-oatmeal-bars/