Video summary
Animal Behaviourist Ryan Neile talks about his life in order to inspire confidence in our own strengths and abilities.
As a child, he found it hard to learn the mainstream way and assumed he wasn't clever.
As a result, he often felt very unhappy.
However, being sent on a dog training course as a teenager changed his perception of intelligence.
Whilst learning to work with animals, Ryan started to recognise that his natural talents, which included patience, listening and gentleness, were fast achieving results with troubled dogs.
This is how he learned to recognise that he was clever, just in a different way from his friends.
Understanding this was his ticket to confidence and career fulfilment.
His message is, "Don’t compare yourself with everybody else. You are just as clever as them in different ways."
Teacher Notes
As a class, children could discuss what animals they like.
Why do people love animals and what do they get out of the relationship with their pets?
Ryan talks about key events and moments in his life.
Children could create a timeline of Ryan’s life and look at the key moments. How do they think these made Ryan feel? How did it affect his life?
There are opportunities for the children to reflect - have they ever had to do something they didn't want to, but were really pleased once they had done it?
A discussion could be: "How do they value different talents at school? What talents do they have? Are there any talents that their school does not recognise because they have no opportunity to show it or share it? Can they think of any appropriate avenues where they could showcase this talent?"
Another discussion could be: "Failure is not the end but just the beginning, and that failure is an event and not a person. At some point everyone thinks they are a failure. Instead of giving up, great achievers keep trying. Hold on to self-belief."
This clip will be relevant for teaching Modern Studies. This topic is suitable for KS1 and KS2 in England and Wales and 2nd level in Scotland.
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