Dick Malott - Saving the World with Behavioral Comunitarianism: Los Horcones

Go back to Behaviorism Articles & Chapters

Saving the World with Behavioral Comunitarianism:
Los Horcones
Richard W. Malott

SEARCHING THE PUDDING FOR THE PROOF

So what about these brothers? These guys who’ve spent all their lives in the Los Horcones educational system. After dinner, I sit around the dinner table, with them, some of the other young people, and the village elders. I use opening gambit, #23, just getting the lay of the land. “For example, most behavior analysts couldn’t even tell you how to extinguish an escape response, you know, Rudolph the rat’s lever-pressing that turns off the shock in the Skinner box.” And Juan Jr. immediately says, you mean, like you leave the shock on even when Rudolph presses the lever.” Bingo. The guys really bright. And having one out of four boys turn out bright is better than average.

A major premise running through Los Horcones is this Skinner-Sidmanian, flower-child nonsense that we should build a world free of aversive control and its radioactive fallout. It’s almost a behavior-analytic religious credo. So whenever the village elders aren’t looking, I take it as my moral responsibility to corrupt their youth, to point to the dark, aversive-control underbelly that supports their sweetly innocent practice of what they, so often, erroneously call positive reinforcement, for example, to point to the necessity of deadlines, both natural and man-made. To argue that the existence of a deadline sets the stage for paradise lost. To argue that the existence of a deadline means our behavior is under the control of avoidance contingencies, avoidance of the loss of the opportunity to get a smile, or a “Well done,” if not avoidance of a sharp tongue that stings more than the overseer’s whip. To argue that these aversive deadlines loom over all of our productive behavior.

And all four of these brave brothers defend the indefensible with courage, well-honed logic, and fluent mastery of the behavioral basics. But all four brave brothers are so intellectually and behavior-analytically skilled, and more impressively, so intellectually honest, that they eventually acknowledge the necessity of aversive control in the smooth flow of life at Los Horcones. It’s rare that I see even a Ph.D. college professor who can so objectively evaluate challenges to his or her own credos. But when I do see anyone whose analyses are so controlled by logical integrity, be it student, professor, or Horconite, so logically controlled that they are willing to abandon life-long assumptions; then I’m impressed. So it turns out that Los Horcones scored four out of four, not one out of four as I had originally assessed.

LEFT UNWRITTEN

This is the first chapter in a monograph that, knowing me, will probably only have one chapter, though I have hardly begun to make a dent in the list of important Los Horcones topics I want to cover. But the children of Los Horcones are the pudding of proof. However, I’ve only written about the children as intellectuals, not as athletes, artists, world travelers, hard-workers, communitarians, entrepreneurs, expert professional behavior modifiers, and sociable, charming young people, the fruit of the past, the seeds of the future.

I haven’t written about the 20 beautiful, stucco buildings, painted in earth colors, and covered with artful artifacts of Mexican. Nor the 240-acre ranch with 20-foot cactuses. The wonderful, nutritious meals that have caused me to gain 5 pounds in 8 days (as a gluttonous degenerate, with no satiation mechanism, this is my only problem with Los Horcones). Nor the two ostriches running outside the window of el Bruto as I write this, nor the peacocks, parrots, parakeets, and more traditional farm animals.

I haven’t written about the four founding members. About turnover, about problems, about the many positive and financially profitable interactions with the Hermosillo community, about plans to start a Los Horcones Dos in Spain. And most importantly, I haven’t written about their world-class, behavior-analytic autism program, one of the oldest such programs in the world, nor about the great wisdom and the great behavioral procedures that have arisen as a result of running this program for 25+ years.

Had the reinforcers of gonnzo journalism not gotten control of my keyboard, I might have made a slightly larger dent in the list of topics. But if you want to be sure to find out more grab me at ABA or WMU and I’ll bend your ear interminably. Better yet, check out their web page at http://www.LosHorcones.org.mx, and go to Los Horcones to pay them a face to face visit (if they can accommodate 40 grade-school kids and 20 college kids over night, without a mishap, they can certainly take care of you for a week, or a month, or a summer, or a sabbatical).

Hasta la vista, amigos.


	old.dickmalott.com Behaviorism, Autism, and Procrastination
	Contents Home Behaviorism Autism Procrastination Fan Mail For Students Autism Master's Program Jobs Books & Viewable Articles Notes from a Radical Behaviorist Photos Things to Buy About old.dickmalott.com WMU Psych	Go back to Behaviorism Articles & Chapters Saving the World with Behavioral Comunitarianism: Los Horcones Richard W. Malott Go back to previous page SEARCHING THE PUDDING FOR THE PROOF So what about these brothers? These guys who’ve spent all their lives in the Los Horcones educational system. After dinner, I sit around the dinner table, with them, some of the other young people, and the village elders. I use opening gambit, #23, just getting the lay of the land. “For example, most behavior analysts couldn’t even tell you how to extinguish an escape response, you know, Rudolph the rat’s lever-pressing that turns off the shock in the Skinner box.” And Juan Jr. immediately says, you mean, like you leave the shock on even when Rudolph presses the lever.” Bingo. The guys really bright. And having one out of four boys turn out bright is better than average. A major premise running through Los Horcones is this Skinner-Sidmanian, flower-child nonsense that we should build a world free of aversive control and its radioactive fallout. It’s almost a behavior-analytic religious credo. So whenever the village elders aren’t looking, I take it as my moral responsibility to corrupt their youth, to point to the dark, aversive-control underbelly that supports their sweetly innocent practice of what they, so often, erroneously call positive reinforcement, for example, to point to the necessity of deadlines, both natural and man-made. To argue that the existence of a deadline sets the stage for paradise lost. To argue that the existence of a deadline means our behavior is under the control of avoidance contingencies, avoidance of the loss of the opportunity to get a smile, or a “Well done,” if not avoidance of a sharp tongue that stings more than the overseer’s whip. To argue that these aversive deadlines loom over all of our productive behavior. And all four of these brave brothers defend the indefensible with courage, well-honed logic, and fluent mastery of the behavioral basics. But all four brave brothers are so intellectually and behavior-analytically skilled, and more impressively, so intellectually honest, that they eventually acknowledge the necessity of aversive control in the smooth flow of life at Los Horcones. It’s rare that I see even a Ph.D. college professor who can so objectively evaluate challenges to his or her own credos. But when I do see anyone whose analyses are so controlled by logical integrity, be it student, professor, or Horconite, so logically controlled that they are willing to abandon life-long assumptions; then I’m impressed. So it turns out that Los Horcones scored four out of four, not one out of four as I had originally assessed. LEFT UNWRITTEN This is the first chapter in a monograph that, knowing me, will probably only have one chapter, though I have hardly begun to make a dent in the list of important Los Horcones topics I want to cover. But the children of Los Horcones are the pudding of proof. However, I’ve only written about the children as intellectuals, not as athletes, artists, world travelers, hard-workers, communitarians, entrepreneurs, expert professional behavior modifiers, and sociable, charming young people, the fruit of the past, the seeds of the future. I haven’t written about the 20 beautiful, stucco buildings, painted in earth colors, and covered with artful artifacts of Mexican. Nor the 240-acre ranch with 20-foot cactuses. The wonderful, nutritious meals that have caused me to gain 5 pounds in 8 days (as a gluttonous degenerate, with no satiation mechanism, this is my only problem with Los Horcones). Nor the two ostriches running outside the window of el Bruto as I write this, nor the peacocks, parrots, parakeets, and more traditional farm animals. I haven’t written about the four founding members. About turnover, about problems, about the many positive and financially profitable interactions with the Hermosillo community, about plans to start a Los Horcones Dos in Spain. And most importantly, I haven’t written about their world-class, behavior-analytic autism program, one of the oldest such programs in the world, nor about the great wisdom and the great behavioral procedures that have arisen as a result of running this program for 25+ years. Had the reinforcers of gonnzo journalism not gotten control of my keyboard, I might have made a slightly larger dent in the list of topics. But if you want to be sure to find out more grab me at ABA or WMU and I’ll bend your ear interminably. Better yet, check out their web page at http://www.LosHorcones.org.mx, and go to Los Horcones to pay them a face to face visit (if they can accommodate 40 grade-school kids and 20 college kids over night, without a mishap, they can certainly take care of you for a week, or a month, or a summer, or a sabbatical). Hasta la vista, amigos. Go back to Behaviorism Articles & Chapters
	Contact Malott, et. al
	Contact Malott, et. al
		Site Map