Assets Rather Than Deficits

The last chapter with the same name in the book An Anthropologist On Mars by Oliver Sacks told the fascinating story of Temple Grandin.

Temple Grandin is an autistic biologist who has a doctorate and teaches at a university and has her own business. Temple ended a lecture saying, "If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I would not--because then I wouldn't be me. Autism is part of who I am." She is alarmed at thoughts of "eradicating" autism. She wrote in a 1990 article:

"Aware adults with autism and their parents are often angry about autism. They may ask why nature or God created such horrible conditions as autism, manic depression, and schizophrenia. However, if the genes that caused these conditions were eliminated there might be a terrible price to pay. It is possible that persons with bits of these traits are more creative, or possibly even geniuses...If science eliminated these genes, maybe the whole world would be taken over by accountants."

Temple's words are a great commentary on how to look at our Esperanza scholars and their families. Rather than seeing deficits that need to be overcome we need to recognize that what may appear to be deficits could very well be assets.

We Were Meant to Be Unique

Today I read the chapter "To See and Not See" in the book An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks. It was a true story about a man--Virgil--who without sight for 40 years. He then had an operation to restore his sight. Instead of being a pleasant experience, it caused him to have a lot of confusion. It was like the sightless man had to die--losing all the wonderful and enhanced other abilities he had developed because of being sightless--to become a man who could see. Quite an amazing story. This story reminded me of the the fable "The Animal School" by George Reavis.

The Animal School: A Fable
by George Reavis
Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world” so they organized a school. They had adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that, except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. He also developed a “charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceeding well and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.
The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.
Does this fable have a moral?
Note: This story was written when George Reavis was the Assistant Superintendent of the Cincinnati Public Schools back in the 1940s! This content is in the public domain and free to copy, duplicate, and distribute. If you would prefer a full-color, illustrated book, one is currently available from Crystal Springs Books at 1-800-321-0401 or 603-924-9621 (fax 603-924-6688)

If we become so obsessed with thinking that everyone needs to have the same gifts and talents we will not only cause confusion and chaos for the individual but we will also miss out on each person's unique individual gifts and talents.

"The Country of the Blind"

The movie we watched the other day--The Music Never Stopped--is based on a story called "The Last Hippie." While doing a "google search" to find out more information about the character in the movie (and story) I discovered that the story was in a book called An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks. I checked the book out of the library and started to read it. In the book the author tells seven paradoxical tales of neurological disorder and creativity. Fascinating!

In the first tale there is a footnote where Sacks mentions a short story by H.G. Wells "The Country of the Blind." In this story for fourteen generations the people in this country have been blind and cut off completely from the seeing world. They have made for themselves new sensibilities and imagination. By a freak accident a "seeing" man--Nunez--finds them. He is determined to teach them about sight and what they have been missing. Yet, the people feel that it is he who is inferior for he doesn't have the sensibilities they have.

This story by H.G. Wells is a reminder that we should not look upon others who may not have what we consider assets as having deficits. The very things we may consider deficits may have allowed them to develop assets we don't have. As we recognize and celebrate those assets we can all be enriched.