Having also been born and raised in the United States and having met a variety of people from various walks of life, I am of the opinion that he hit the nail square on the head. I’ve met kind selfless people, sure, but that is the exception to the rule most often.
Alright. Just a guess here, but the instructor put the hat on the gator. My thought is that they were attempting to use their hat as an impromptu blinder so they could wrangle it. Instead, however, the gator could still see, didn’t like what was going on, and bailed.