By Amber Coe
amberc@newsroom.byu.edu
Although Dr. Tom Catherall, Associate Dean of Health and Human Performance, has been in the news for designing and building the Garden Railway at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens, his involvement with trains is much more extensive and surprising.
Catherall's interest in the educational and communication benefits of trains was piqued in 1985 when he read an article about a therapist who used trains in marriage counseling.
Since then, Catherall has conducted research concerning trains in, and its benefits in strengthening communication and problem solving skills between youth and adults.
'The purpose of the original research was to discover why some adults interact well with children they interact with as a leader, but not with their own children.'
Catherall used trains to create an environment where communication was essential to reach an important goal, and focused attention on the trains, rather than communication issues.
Each family member would be given a train that had only one color. The objective was for each family member to create multi-colored train. This required communication in separating and reattaching boxcars.
After one family finished, and another came in to take their place with a multicolored train already assembled, Catherall directed them to create a unicolored train for each member, provided the parents could not give direction.
He found that not only were children more directive, but often had more efficient suggestions for relocating the boxcars.
'Parents feel responsible a for their children's success,' Catherall said.
Most often a parent will want to tell their child what to do, rather than listening to their suggestions, because of their responsibility for their children's development and growth.
'Parents use a telling rather counseling leadership style with their own children,' Catherall says. 'They feel responsible for their children's actions. As leaders, they are only responsible for actions.
Catherall says that trains are a good way for families to spend time together. All members of the family are drawn to one aspect of trains, whether they are building model houses, creating scenes, setting up the track or doing carpentry work or gardening.
Train sets are also provide a medium for teaching. Traditional math and word problems can be taught using the visual aid of trains, as can aspects of community building, fuel resources, and logic.
Catherall asks, 'If an electric train is traveling at 25 mph, and a 20 mph wind is blowing in the opposite direction, which way does the smoke blow?' An astute student will notice that electric trains do not produce smoke.
Since 1987 Catherall has worked with Markland Trains develop school curriculum using model trains. Markland has donated 12 trains in Utah and Salt Lake County, with the help of Dr. Catherall.