The Misunderstood Guinea Pig in the Maze

            In middle school, I did my science project on bath salts and no one engaged in cannibalism, but this is not what I’m writing about.  The focus is on another project across the classroom.  They weren’t the nicest girls, but I learned from their project, probably moreso than they did. 

These two girls decided to run a few rodents through a maze for their science project.  It was a homemade, hot pink, cardboard maze, and it was just big enough to fit their largest furry contender.  They had three different rodents run through their simplified labyrinth: a mouse, a gerbil, and a guinea pig.  For each trial, they measured time elapsed, and number of times the animal ran into dead ends.

In class we got to watch each creature run through the maze.  The mouse was the fastest, and the gerbil was a close second, but the guinea pig took significantly longer and ran into the most dead ends.  My classmates laughed as the guinea pig crawled into the same dead end twice after running into it seconds ago.

The guinea pig would seem stupid to most people.  Not knowing the facts doesn’t make it the guinea pig’s fault.  Little did my classmates know, guinea pigs don’t use their eye vision very often.*  Olfactory is their dominant sense, not vision.*  Moreover, the maze halls just barely fit the guinea pig’s size.  The mouse and the gerbil could comfortably move, scope the area, and turn around, whereas the guinea pig had to back out of a hall to go somewhere else.  The misunderstood guinea pig was very disadvantaged.  The mean girls judged him to be the dumbest.  They even named their project, “Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest.” 

This pretty much sums up Special Ed discrimination, whether it’s by “fellow” classmates or “adults” who are supposed to be faculty.

As someone who has experience working with Special Ed students, and being the Special Ed student, I see how this project parallels.  The guinea pig functions differently on a sensory level, and the system was physically unaccommodating to him.  (I’m just going to call it a boy).  Then administrators judge/grade him as if his circumstances were equal to his furry classmates.  They label him as “the dumbest one.”  The admins don’t understand his difficulties or the biology behind his differences, and somehow not knowing the facts makes him the stupid one?  The kids laugh as he makes mistakes.  The guinea pig probably didn’t give a shit about anyone present, but the parallel is still there. 

Point:  Things aren’t always what they seem to be, and neither are people, hence anyone can be misunderstood.  Reading deeper into things leads you to deeper understanding.  Being afraid of “overthinking” leads to being superficial and only reading surfaces.  The mind is a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

*Credit:  I learned these facts from my friend who is a professional guinea pig rescuer.



Originally a Facebook Note posted: July 13, 2016

Updated: March 7, 2020
Edited: May 2, 2020