Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

Alex the African grey parrot

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Recollecting Past Lives | Ajahn Brahm | 19 April 2024

1 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Alex the parrot, A L E X, and parrot is an African grey parrot who was a subject of an experiment, and a kind experiment. Some uh psychologist who had uh knowledge of a way of teaching those with intellectual disabili- disabilities, learning disabilities, how to talk. You know, sometimes kids, it's not they're naughty, but just they have some blockages about learning how to speak the local language. And of course, some of these psychologists have worked out very good techniques in order to teach kids how to speak. Not maybe the normal lessons which other kids have in school, but specialized for them. So, these couple of psychologists over in the United States, they uh tried to teach a parrot how to talk. I don't mean like pieces of eight or uh naughty language. I mean, how to have enough of a vocabulary to be able to use these words intelligently

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 3:23 (to 4:53)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Psychologists taught Alex, an African grey parrot, real vocabulary, not party tricks. Watching him converse gave Ajahn Brahm goosebumps, especially when Alex said: I'm fed up, can I go now? Koko the gorilla signed even when alone. Animals have minds of their own. Treat them with the respect any thinking being deserves.

In brief (our summary)

Psychologists adapting methods for children with learning disabilities teach African grey parrot Alex not party tricks but intelligent vocabulary — Brahm first saw the video years ago.

Teaching point

Intelligence shows up wherever someone bothers to teach kindly.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Recollecting Past Lives | Ajahn Brahm | 19 April 2024 · 2024-04-20 · ▶ watch from 3:23 to 4:53 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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