Was belling the cat the real problem?
I was narrating a story of Aesop’s fable “who will bell the cat,” in one of my story telling sessions.
There are many different versions of the story and each version ends, with the same problem of belling the cat. The story goes….
There lived many mice in a house. One day a cat came and stayed there. They were very afraid of the cat. They could not move about freely. One day they hit upon a plan to get rid of the cat..........
They held a meeting. It was decided that a bell should be tied round the neck of the cat. Then they would hear the sound of the cat's coming and no more will be killed by the cat.
There was an old mouse in the meeting. He stood up and asked, “The idea is good, but who will bell the cat?” Hearing this, the mice began to look at one another and felt disappointed. Finding no solution of belling the cat, the mice eventually migrated to another house that had no cat in it.
While narrating this story, the questions coming in my mind were:
· Was belling the cat, the only remedy?
· Can there be any other approach that they were supposed to explore?
· Belling the cat was a solution given during the meeting, and they concluded the meeting, considering belling the cat as a problem.
· Instead of exploring other possible answers, of the root problem, they gave up.
I asked the kids attending the session, and they came up surprisingly with different solutions.
1. A team of mice can guard the others.
2. Can put CCTV and monitor her movements.
3. Can keep a time log of her meals, when she feels hungry and they can provide food from the kitchen.
4. Can we put GPS? Another solution came by.
Listening to these answers, the questions comes to my mind...
· Is our education system, forcing our kids to limit their imagination?
· Are we forcing them to select answers, only from the given options, instead allowing them to think out of the box?
Like to hear your point of view on this.
Senior Web Developer at Wells Fargo
2 个月I know this is old, but had never heard of the phrase and looked it up and ran across this interesting article. The issue you bring up at the end is separate from the fable. The fable isn't about education or finding more than 1 solution, or even just problem solving itself. Fables are specifically to illuminate a moral or philosophical issue. The moral here (or one reading of it) is that when the solution to a problem could involve great danger, or even sacrifice of someone, no one may want to do the work to solve the problem. All the mice agree, the cat is a problem. All the mice agree, we should bell the cat. And while each mouse is fine with someone else taking that danger, each mouse would not personally take the risk. It is commentary about the human condition and how people are willing to allow others to be sacrificed, while never willing to be sacrificed themselves. If you are teaching children this story is about not brainstorming enough, then yes, the 'education system' is failing them.
MERN | AI
4 年Schools are interested in finishing the courses, not on the learning?
Exploring options
5 年A fine take on an age old fable, ma'am. Yes, it definitely shows how limiting the thoughts can be so easy and attractive to get rid of pressing avenues and move away from even thinking about a proper solution. Sadly, a story that is somehow followed in today's educational system as well as everyday life.. however, when fine educators think in this new way, then we can surely think of novel possibilities.
E-learning I Schools I Mentor I Learner
5 年Yes you are quite right. We hardly allow an individual to engage and explore extensively.. nor do we provide for an learning environment that facilitates a more independent form of engagement..of situations and concepts. Learning continues to be too structured and that negates the creative realm of the wondrous but innocent child.