By Cynthia Parkhill
The Clearlake Observer

Monty Roberts, “the man who listens to horses,” paid a return visit to the Konocti Unified School District last week, along with two special guests — Shy Boy, a formerly wild mustang, and Roberts’ champion quarterhorse Nick. Students were treated to presentations by Roberts in which he demonstrated his nonverbal and noncoercive method of communicating with horses.

“Horses and kids are what calm me,” Roberts said during a Q&A session, responding to a questioner who described his methods and presence as “calming” and wanted to know what was calming for him.Roberts stresses non-violence in all relationships, from those between humans and animals to those of the interpersonal variety. “No one has the right to say You must or I’ll hurt you’ to any other creature,” is the credo that Roberts stresses when making his presentations.

Sadly, violence had touched the community mere hours before Roberts’ arrival in Konocti. A home invasion robbery in Clearlake Park resulted in major injuries to a juvenile victim. Two of the suspects died of gunshot wounds and a third suspect faces murder charges in connection with their deaths.

“It’s a horrible thing,” Roberts said when asked how to explain something like this to a child. “We never want to tell a child it’s not a horrible thing. But [we should ask them] what’s next? What can we do to make our community a better place?”

One way in which Konocti is working to make its community a better place is by implementing Roberts’ principles of Join-Up, which have been adapted to the classroom setting by educator Stephen Taylor at Kingshurst Junior Academy in the U.K.’s West Birmingham. A group of Konocti educators visited the school earlier this year, where they met both Roberts and Taylor.

Five years ago, Kingshurst was among the bottom 2 percent among 34,000 schools. Taylor negotiated contracts with his students that specified pre-agreed upon consequences for both negative and positive behavior. The school was ranked among the top 5 percent this year and Taylor has attributed its success to its adoption of Join-Up principles. Konocti has approved a contract with Taylor for consulting services.

Roberts’ visit last week represented the second he has paid to Konocti. As with his prior visit, Roberts has waived a speaking fee — although the district has been responsible for expenses such as hotel and airfare. These are being paid out of Title II categorical staff development funds.

Contact Cynthia Parkhill.