Birds can't talk????

[dislater]

If that teacher doesn't think birds can talk she needs to come and spend a morning listening to Twiggy our CAG ordering us around, telling the dogs when to go outside to go potty, telling Glory when it's appropriate for her to be out of her cage on her tree, ordering lunch: from veggies, to Taco Bell, to apples dipped in peanut-butter. Then telling me it's nap-time and not to bother her until she wants to watch Montel on TV.
This bird talks and knows what she's saying and demands that she gets her way and we kowtow to her wishes or the entire household is miserable.

[Buteo]

At least she didn't get punished for it.

When I was in school were were doing a Sherlock Holmes story - the 1892 classic "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".
My English teacher was a great Holmes fan & was asking the class for our opinions of the story.
When she got to me, she asked me what I thought of it.
I said, "The elements all fit together nicely, it's just too bad the story is so completely implausible."

Oh did she ever get upset!!!!!
Her smile faded instantly, replaced with a look of seething anger. She told me to stand up in front of the class and "explain myself". (That bothered me big time. It wasn't "explain my opinion" or "my point", it was "explain myself.")
Her voice was dripping with sarcasm as she said,
"You are a student that hasn't even completely high-school. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the greatest writers of his time. HOW DO YOU FIGURE THIS SO IMPLAUSIBLE???"

Trying my best to ignore the venomous serpent that was imitating my teacher, I told the class that the story was based on the protagonist villain training a poisonous snake to slither through a ventilation duct between 2 rooms, across the bed's canopy, down the bedpost & biting the bed's occupant while they slept. When the protagonist hears the sharp intake of breath signalling the completion of the evil act, he plays a unique whistle to recall that living murder weapon. The snake hears the whistle & returns via the same route it used to enter the room.

I told the class that the whistle is the failing point of the story because all snakes are deaf. Snakes sense an approaching animal or person by feeling the vibrations of their steps through whatever the snake is touching or through the ground. They are physically unable to hear airborne vibrations (sound).
That being true, the snake would be unable to hear the recall whistle & would remain in the victim's room. If the protagonist had entered the room at some later point to collect the snake afterwards, then the storyline would be workable, but as it stands, the premise is implausible.

She told me she didn't believe me in the slightest & she expected me to produce PROOF the next day in class.
The following day, I brought 9 books with me: 3 from my house, 6 from the school's library. Each book confirmed my assertion that snakes lack the ability to hear. It was more than enough proof to convince the rest of the class.
My reward was I ended up with 2 weeks of after-school detention.

When my Dad (a fellow teacher in the same school) found out, he wasn't too happy. He'd had his own run-ins with that particular teacher and was not on the friendliest terms with her. As senior Electronics teacher, my Dad was in charge of all the Audio-Video equipment and she regularly screwed up just about any machine left in her care. (She couldn't run a VCR or overhead projector to save her life.)

One of my friends was laughing his butt off when he told me he was at his locker in the hallway outside her class when my Dad walked into her room. He said he heard my Dad ask her why I was being punished for being correct and proving my point the way I was asked to do.
She told him I was serving detention for my attitude not my opinion.

He told her he'd have a talk with me......
but just before he left her room, he told her:
"To be honest, if I was in his place & you'd pulled me up to the front of the class to belittle me because I disagreed with one of your favourite authors.....
and I could prove you were in the wrong....
I'd have given you a bit of attitude myself."

[Valo's Moirana]

Originally Posted by Vega

Ummmm, I thought that the "talking" a bird does isn't actual "talking", but rather mimicking of our sounds...that to us are words.

Dr. Irene Pepperberg actually published her studies performed with african greys in peer reviewed journals (and from dealing with journals a lot I know that they are actually good journals). In one of her publications, the abstract concludes with "His results demonstrated numerical comprehension competence comparable to that of chimpanzees and very young children. He also demonstrated knowledge of absence of quantity, using "none" to designate zero."

This would indicate that they actually go beyond copying sounds, but actually comprehend the meaning of words.

Some of her publications can be found at http://www.alexfoundation.org/irene.htm

[sml]

Originally Posted by Vega

Ummmm, I thought that the "talking" a bird does isn't actual "talking", but rather mimicking of our sounds...that to us are words.

It have been prove that it´s not just mimicking with all..I read in some study that they dont understand the actually word, but they can associate the word to object or situation.

sanne

[ROYJOY]

hey buteo, that reminds me of a time in 5th grade, my teacher said, fish dont have teeth. her fish experiance, must have been limmited to the fish bowl kind, and never caught a pike. the next day, i took her a picture, out of national geographic, of a baracuda. i too was punished for being right. struck on the back of my hands with a ruler. this was a teacher, a person trusted with the minds of uor children. had she never heard of a shark? she had no buisiness teaching. i was traumatized. i lost faith in the system, and got poor grades the rest of my schooling. it was a shock to me that i was right, and she punished me to save face, but obviuosly the rest of the kids were also confused by this.

[Monica]

Only once was I correct when a teacher was wrong... I was so pissed that during lunch break (at the time, we had to walk from the middle school to the elementary to eat lunch-same with highschoolers), instead of returning to my school, I went to the post office (which at the time was where my grandmother would have showed up hours later). Well, turns out my teacher was scared when I didn't come back, kids did confirm that they saw me walking back, but that I didn't actually show up... she notified the princible who was also concerned about my where-abouts (same princible was a teacher when my mother was in school!), and the highschool (where my sister was) was notified.... so, my sister and one of the teachers came looking for me, found me, and took me back to the highschool! Next day in class, I was actually congradulated for being correct!

As for birds can't talk? Once had a petstore employee tell me that budgies and cockatiels can't talk cause they don't have the voicebox like the bigger parrots do! Parrots don't have vocal cords like humans do... however, they all have the same voice box, so to speak! Thought it was pretty hilarious though, especially after listening to Victor, and a few other budgies! And tiels too!

[Buteo]

Originally Posted by ROYJOY

hey Buteo, that reminds me of a time in 5th grade, my teacher said, fish don't have teeth. her fish experience, must have been limited to the fish bowl kind, and never caught a pike. The next day, I took her a picture of a barracuda from a National Geographic magazine. I too was punished for being right. Struck on the back of my hands with a ruler. This was a teacher, a person trusted with the minds of our children. Had she never heard of a shark? She had no business teaching. I was traumatized. I lost faith in the system, and got poor grades the rest of my schooling. It was a shock to me. I was right and she punished me just to save face, but obviously the rest of the kids were also confused by this.

That's funny, (not the part about you getting smacked though.)
Most North American game-fish (Trout, Salmon, Pike, Musky, Walleye, etc.) have visible teeth.

I would have asked her, "If fish don't have teeth, then why are people so afraid of Piranha????"

[dancyn56]

I also believe that Birds can think freely and communicate with their care givers. My little Ralphie was a captured bird in the early 70"s and I took custody of him almost 3 years ago. It took some time before he warmed up to us and felt comfortable enough to speak freely, but now there's no stopping him. We live in Florida and have to prepare for hurricanes every once in a while. Last year, when we had to put the hurricane shutters down on our windows, Ralphie mimicked the sound of them going down. When they were completely closed, he said" Uh Dan, I can't see." I never taught him that phrase and it proves they are definitely free thinkers and speakers. I believe almost all animals are intelligent to some degree but my TAG is brilliant!

[dancyn56]

I have a list of about 130 phrases that he says and many household sounds he replicates too.

[raddaughter]

I had a run-in with a teacher once. It was about dogs. We were talking about different breeds of dogs and I said mine was Poodles. I explained that there were 3 types of Poodles, Standard, Miniature and Toy. I then began to tell her about the colors. When I mentioned Phantom and Red (the colors of my dog) she got a funny look. When I was finished, she said (in front of the whole class) that there was no such color as phantom and that the color "red" was simply a dark apricott

Well, I brought a book and pictures I got off of the internet and some personal pictures. Still, I was 'mistaken'. Finally, at the end of the week, she said that I was being "truthful"; but I still had the feeling that she didn't believe me.

The funny thing is, I have a black phantom and red toy poodle! Some people