It was assumed that other animals were lesser beings because they did not exhibit the same traits. Over the ages we humans have claimed certain characteristics as exclusively ours, traits such as language, tool making, self-recognition, empathy, culture making, and cooperative behavior.
In his latest book, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, de Waal examines just how special other animals are, allowing us to take a look at how orangutans, chimpanzees, elephants, crows, orcas, octopuses, and many other animals ‘think.’ His findings and research offer new and exciting understandings of animal behavior and intelligence. No one does a better job of helping us come to terms with our own creatureliness than Frans de Waal, Emory University Professor of Psychology and director of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta.
We humans possess a sense of specialness that has consistently led us to deny our membership in the animal kingdom. No amount of reasoning could convince them otherwise. The next day, a group of parents showed up at school and adamantly informed me that humans were neither plants nor animals and should never have been included on the list. The children were asked to mark each item as either a plant or animal. For homework I assigned a simple worksheet aimed at helping students understand the difference between plants and animals. When I was a young teacher, my third grade class began a science unit on animals. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
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