"Shoaling and Schooling"

Being Different

“In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are shoaling, and if the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are schooling.”

Wikipedia

I am trying to figure out how to add a shoal of fish to a wall quilt I am making. Looking at images of schools and shoals of them got me thinking how much like fish we humans are. Running with the pack, or in this case, the school, has its advantages—protection from predators, enhanced foraging, success in finding a mate, and hydrodynamic efficiency. Generally, fish like to shoal with others of their own size and species, who look like them in every way, since “sticking out” gets you attention from predators you don't want. They also prefer to shoal with healthy fish, and kin-folks, when they can recognize them.

Anyone who's ever carpooled at a middle school has seen this phenomenon in human form, both in the parents lined up like sleeping sharks in their giant SUV's, and in the clumps of kids issuing forth from the building. Boys with boys, girls with girls, all looking identical to one another and moving with the same synchronicity as schools of barracudas. Being “different” makes you a target of persecution. Staying as close as possible to the leader of the pack is the only thing that makes the slightest sense.

There's something beautiful and fascinating about shoals of fish, precisely spaced, streaking shiny through the water, executing complicated maneuvers together, as though with one mind. Fish never outgrow their need for 'schooling.' They will always want the safety of the pack. Hopefully, humans find their individual interests, gifts and talents compelling enough to “drop out” and explore them. And, once “different,” there's no going back to swimming with the pack.

                                                             In the Spirit,

                                                                 Jane