Bonds
It’s The Bond That Makes The Difference!
It is, indeed, the bond that our Talking Talons’
students form with our wildlife that makes our school-based Youth
Leadership Curriculum so effective. As our students learn about
our special non-releasable wildlife, including hawks, falcons, bats, and
reptiles, they develop empathy for all wildlife and for the environment
that we all share. This, in turn, gives the students a motivation to pay
attention to science and to all of their studies.
It’s one of those things that we always knew, but
funding agencies like to have that sort of thing scientifically verified.
Dr. Carmen Sorge, Ph.D. in Education, conducts rigorous evaluation of our
school-based programs each year in order than we may document the program’s
impact. This rigorous evaluation includes pre- and post-tests, as well as
comparisons to control groups. This process has been proven to have the
following impacts:
- To affect a significant reduction of identified risk factors in the
participants, such as violent behavior, impulsivity, rebelliousness, tobacco,
alcohol and drug use. - To affect a significant increased in identified protective factors,
such as self-esteem, peer interactions, bonding to school, social skills,
ethical beliefs and decision making skills. - To affect a significant increase in attitudes and interest in science,
wildlife, and the environment.
Yet, it is the words of our students that can sum up the impact that Talking
Talons Youth Leadership has in their lives:
“What I like about the Talking Talons program
is being around the animals and learning about them, how they live, what
to do if you find an injured one, I think that’s really important.
Also, how they interact and live with us and how we survive together is
interesting to learn.”
“Doing the presentations and learning about the animals was my favorite
about the program. Being able to see them up close because I’ve never
been able to do that and it’s much better than just hearing a teacher
talk about them or reading about them in a book. I’ve seen some of
the animals in a zoo, but it’s not the same when they are in a cage.”
“I liked learning about facts that taught me how to be responsible.
Like how littering or not taking good care of animals affects us. Plus we
played some cool activities that would connect to what (the Talking
Talons educator) was teaching us. That was fun.”
“I learned to handle situations that are scary better, like my animal
tried to escape when I was talking but I learned to stay calm and still
had to give my speech. That helped me realize that I can stay calm even
when I’m scared to talk in front of others.”
“The presentations helped me learn how to speak in front of a big
audience. I had to learn to speak louder, not fidget or look at the floor.
The presentations helped to take your mind off of stage fright because I
had to concentrate on holding the animal plus get the facts straight.”
“I learned how to organize information which has helped me in other
classes too. When we had information to learn about the animals we had to
learn facts in a way that we had to teach it to the rest of the class. That
was hard, but I learned how to do it. My Dad really got into helping me
with that too.”
“I can memorize information a lot better now. I’ve learning
that from the presentations. The presentations have helped my social studies
and science skills better. I listen to things better because I understand
what they are talking about.”
“I had to learn how to talk in front of my classmates and that makes
me nervous. But since I’ve done it twice it’s not so bad now
and I want to do it. I don’t think I would have ever wanted to do
it except that holding and talking about the animals made me less nervous.”
“I used to talk less, I’d be more quiet. I’d make stupid
jokes about the animals, birds and everything because I didn’t really
care or know what to say. But I now know what to say. And since I’ve
learned about the animals and how they live I don’t think they are
so stupid.”
“For me, science was always a drag, I could never really understand
it. I never really go the whole environment thing, but with Talking Talons,
when they bring the animals in – they actually make it fun –
we do activities, and what I learn in Talking Talons
has improved my science understanding and it really has improved my grades.”
“At first I didn’t even care about the animals, but now I
care more. The trash can doesn’t seem so far away now and I purposefully
go to pick up trash and throw it away so that it doesn’t hurt the
animals.”
“I used to hate wildlife, chop down trees, kill the snakes, but now
I try to help them. Now I get to respect them because I’ve learned
about them and what they go through to survive.”
“Talking Talons has made me think and how
it would be a lot different if the animals were not here. I know how the
food chain works and how it has to be in place for everyone to exist and
also how we mess it up and it hurt the animals. We learned that in books
but seeing the animals in real life and learning about them from the study
sheet makes it more real for me so I think I’ve learned a lot from
the Talking Talons program. I’ve learned
how to appreciate animals because they are just like one of us.”
“I think about the environment more now and how trash we leave around
can hurt the animals. I think about how they think they are getting food
but instead they try to eat something plastic that kills or strangles them
and that makes me throw things in the trash can instead of leaving it around.”
“I never really cared about the environment or wildlife before. I
thought that was boring or kind of sissy to care. But now that I’ve
seen and worked with the animals it makes me care about them more. I’m
trying to teach my little brother to care about them too.”
“Before Talking Talons I cared and I understood
about the environment and animals, but I didn’t think you could do
anything about it. What I like about Talking Talons
it that it teaches you that one person doing something really can make a
difference. And if you learn to talk in front of others like Talking
Talons teaches you then other kids can be influenced about what you
say and maybe it will get lots of people to do something about the problems
we have. And that’s how you create a change, I think. I know that
one person can get lots of other people to change things.”
“I would say that Talking Talons should
be taught to all kids. They need to know what happens if they do pollute,
not just what happens to the animals but what happens to the rest of us
because their choices affects all of us. Plus they would find out that science
is fun.”
Bonding with Animals Scale and other cirriculum developed by Talking Talons Youth Leadership, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.talkingtalons.com.
