Leading the Horse to Water

I once sat through a training with Tammy Heflebower with Marzano Research, and she proposed a question that changed my perspective completely on how I view the way my students learn. She led with the famous saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make them drink.” At that moment, I quickly reflected on how my students feel when I am delivering new content. Is this how some teachers always think? “I am teaching to them, they just don’t want to learn it.” “I am taking them to the water but they do not want to drink it.”

This mindset takes me back to a cartoon I saw. There were two boys and dog. One little boy tells the other, “I taught my dog how to whistle!” So the 2nd little boy leans down to the dog and says, “I don’t hear anything.” The little boy replies, “ I said I taught him how. I didn’t say he learned it!”

In this reflection I thought… How many teachers treat their curriculum this way? I am guilty from  time to time. Especially on content that I feel is yawn worthy. Of course my horses do not want to drink the water. The water is stale. The water is boring. So how do you fix it? How do you fix the mindset? What is the first step?

This is where the perspective changing question came in. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink-- the real question is not how to MAKE the horse drink but how can you make the horse thirsty? THIRSTY! At that point, I started my journey to make the students thirsty. I have to make meaningful lessons, and not the lessons where I am begging them to drink. In my efforts to make my students thirsty, I have grown so much is my delivery of content, lesson engagement, my hooks, and most definitely changing the energy and enthusiasm in the classroom.

I hope you choose to join me in the effort to create lessons the kids moan and beg not to leave your room for. Does it take a little more effort? Yes! But is it worth it? Absolutely. Keep those students “thirsty,” my friends!