Education - The difference between poverty & prosperity

For the past few years my education efforts in the field of parrot behaviour have been almost solely focused on writing for Australian Birdkeeper Magazine and delivering workshops for both Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations and my new workshop co-initiative `Behaviourtects’ with my good buddy Nicholas Bishop. My client consultation work has become increasingly more difficult to maintain with an ever increasing set of competing priorities. What I am really passionate about are my workshops. These are incredibly rewarding experiences and the opportunity to teach to a group of passionate parrot people quenches my thirst for educating others. 

Research tells us what should be obvious - education is the number one influence on poverty or prosperity in the human condition. Likewise, it is our education levels as parrot owners that make the difference between our parrots living impoverished or prosperous lives whilst in our care. Parrot owners that actively engage in a life-long approach to continuing education of themselves are undoubtedly better equipped to offer their birds the enriched captive life they deserve. Even though I have been a parrot keeper for nearly 20 years and taught parrot owners for more than ten of those through my writing and workshops I consider myself a professional learner first, teacher second. I still attend workshop opportunities as a student and keenly listen to the anecdotes of others to embellish my own experience set with theirs. 

These days, most people look to the Internet as their primary learning environment. If you’re lucky you will find the good stuff early in your search. There’s plenty of gold out there if you start with the links below. If not, welcome to a whole world of poverty stricken thinking, most of which rears its ugly head in those great information shantytowns – the parrot discussion forum or the Facebook parrot whatever group. 

My advice - If you really want to deepen your education then there is no substitute for an immersion experience via workshops, conferences or conventions. If you can’t make a workshop then be sure to check the following sources to ensure your understanding of the behaviour and enrichment needs of your birds is going to prosper and not languish in poverty…

• The writings of Steve Martin – Natural Encounters Incorporated
• The writings of Dr Susan Friedman PhD - Behaviorworks
• The writings of Hillary Hankey – Learning Parrots
• Book and DVD Resources from Barbara Heidenreich – Good Bird Inc
• Parrot Enrichment Ideas – Kris Porter

Poverty or Prosperity? Education makes the difference