No Longer Quivering
by Michael Pearl from No Greater Joy – The Two-Brained Kid
Editor’s note: Michael Pearl shows that he knows as much about mules as he does about children in this confusing piece where he equates mule training and child training as one in the same and does injustice to the nature of both. I hope he has no access to poor mules!
Just the other day, I heard an old mule trainer make one of the wisest statements about child training I have ever heard.
The expert mule trainer said, “A mule has two brains: one Acting Brain and one Reacting Brain.” He was not talking about the physiology of the mule; he was talking about its psychology. He went on to explain that as long as the mule is calm, he is thinking and trying to relate to you. In that mental state, you are able to communicate with him and he is able to discern what you want and how to please you.
But if you push the mule too far and respond to him in anger or frustration, he decides that he cannot please you and he starts reacting to your aggression with his own aggression or with flight. Your goal is to get the mule to voluntarily cooperate with you—to think and to act. If you get upset and the mule gets confused, he starts reacting instead of acting. In that disturbed state, the mule is not capable of learning anything other than to fear you and resist you. When he stops trusting you and thinking in terms of pleasing you, you may intimidate or beat him into submission, but you have not trained him. If you swing at someone and they duck, you have not trained them to bow in respect. You have clearly gotten a reaction, but not an action that you can expect them to voluntarily repeat in response to a verbal command.
Funny. Wikipedia and other sources say that mules are more intelligent – “Mules are reputed to be more patient, hardy and long-lived than horses, and are described less obstinate and more intelligent than donkeys.“
QUOTING QUIVERFULL is a regular feature of NLQ – we present the actual words of noted Quiverfull leaders, cultural enforcers and those that seek to keep women submitted to men and ask our readers: What do you think? Agree? Disagree? This is the place to state your opinion. Please, let’s keep it respectful – but at the same time, we encourage readers to examine the ideas of Quiverfull and Spiritual Abuse honestly and thoughtfully.
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