Voljela bih podijeliti sa vama nešto što sam otkrila prije par mjeseci, pišući članak za italijansko izdanje magazina Wired. Uvijek imam svoj rječnik sinonima pri ruci kad nešto pišem, ali sam već završila uređivanje teksta i shvatila da nikad u životu nisam potražila riječ "onesposobljen"
I'd like to share with you a discovery that I made a few months ago while writing an article for Italian Wired. I always keep my thesaurus handy whenever I'm writing anything, but I'd already finished editing the piece, and I realized that I had never once in my life looked up the word "disabled" to see what I'd find.
Dopustite da vam pročitam unos. "Onesposobljen," pridjev: "osakaćen, bespomoćan, beskoristan, ruiniran, ugašen, oštećen, ranjen, manjkav, defektan, obogaljen, uveo, potrošen, onemoćao, impotentan, kastriran, paraliziran, hendikepiran, senilan, oronuo, oboljeo, iznuren, iscrpljen, izmoren, polomljen, otpisan; također vidi: povrijeđen, nekoristan i slab. Antonimi: zdrav, jak, sposoban." Ovu listu sam pročitala prijatelju na glas i prvo sam se smijala, bilo je tako komično, ali sam naprosto odjedanput bila shrvana i ostala bez glasa, i morala sam stati da se saberem od emocionalnog šoka i udara izazvanog napasnošću ovih riječi.
Let me read you the entry. "Disabled, adjective: crippled, helpless, useless, wrecked, stalled, maimed, wounded, mangled, lame, mutilated, run-down, worn-out, weakened, impotent, castrated, paralyzed, handicapped, senile, decrepit, laid-up, done-up, done-for, done-in cracked-up, counted-out; see also hurt, useless and weak. Antonyms, healthy, strong, capable." I was reading this list out loud to a friend and at first was laughing, it was so ludicrous, but I'd just gotten past "mangled," and my voice broke, and I had to stop and collect myself from the emotional shock and impact that the assault from these words unleashed.
Znate, to je naravno moj stari ofucani rječnik sinonima. Mislim da to mora biti neko prastaro izdanje, zar ne. Ali, u stvari, izdanje datira iz ranih osamdesetih, kad sam polazila u osnovnu školu i oblikovala shvatanje sebe same izvan porodičnog kruga te u odnosu prema drugoj djeci i svijetu koji me okružuje. I naravno, hvala Bogu da tada nisam koristila rječnik sinonima. Mislim da bi, iz ovog unosa, izgledalo da sam rođena u svijetu koji nekoga poput mene percepira bez ikakve pozitivne osobine, a ja sam danas, u stvari, slavna zbog mogućnosti i uzbudljivih iskustava koje je moj život kreirao.
You know, of course, this is my raggedy old thesaurus so I'm thinking this must be an ancient print date, right? But, in fact, the print date was the early 1980s, when I would have been starting primary school and forming an understanding of myself outside the family unit and as related to the other kids and the world around me. And, needless to say, thank God I wasn't using a thesaurus back then. I mean, from this entry, it would seem that I was born into a world that perceived someone like me to have nothing positive whatsoever going for them, when in fact, today I'm celebrated for the opportunities and adventures my life has procured.
Pa sam tako odmah potražila online izdanje iz 2009. očekujući da ću naći neku reviziju vrijednu pažnje. Evo ažurirane verzije ovog unosa. Nažalost, nije puno bolja. Nalazim da su dvije zadnje riječi "Bliski Antonimi" posebno konfuzne, "cjelovit" i "zdrav."
So, I immediately went to look up the 2009 online edition, expecting to find a revision worth noting. Here's the updated version of this entry. Unfortunately, it's not much better. I find the last two words under "Near Antonyms," particularly unsettling: "whole" and "wholesome."
Tako da se tu ne radi samo o riječima. To je ono što vjerujemo kad su u pitanju ljudi koje imenujemo ovim riječima. Tu se radi o vrijednostima koje stoje iza riječi i na koji način mi postavljamo ove vrijednosti. Naš jezik utiče na naše mišljenje i naš svjetonazor i našu percepciju drugih ljudi. U stvari, mnoga antička društva, uključujući Grke i Rimljane, su vjerovala u moć verbalnog izricanja kletve, zato što glasno izgovaranje nečega tu stvar čini postojećom. Pa, koju stvarnost mi želimo kreirati, osobu sa ograničenjima ili osnaženu osobu? Ležerno čineći nešto tako jednostavno poput imenovanja osobe, djeteta, mogli bi smo ugasiti ili prigušiti njihovu moć. Zar ne bismo umjesto toga željeli da im otvorimo vrata?
So, it's not just about the words. It's what we believe about people when we name them with these words. It's about the values behind the words, and how we construct those values. Our language affects our thinking and how we view the world and how we view other people. In fact, many ancient societies, including the Greeks and the Romans, believed that to utter a curse verbally was so powerful, because to say the thing out loud brought it into existence. So, what reality do we want to call into existence: a person who is limited, or a person who's empowered? By casually doing something as simple as naming a person, a child, we might be putting lids and casting shadows on their power. Wouldn't we want to open doors for them instead?
Jedna takva osoba, koja je meni otvorila vrata, je bio moj doktor kad sam bila dijete na A.I. Dupont Institutu u Wilmingtonu, Delaware. Zove se Dr. Pizzutillo. Amerikanac italijanskog porijekla, čije je ime očito većini Amerikanaca preteško za izgovoriti, tako da ga znaju kao Dr. P. A Dr. P. je uvijek nosio mašne sa veselim bojama i imao savršene predispozicije za rad sa djecom.
One such person who opened doors for me was my childhood doctor at the A.I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, Delaware. His name was Dr. Pizzutillo, an Italian American, whose name, apparently, was too difficult for most Americans to pronounce, so he went by Dr. P. And Dr. P always wore really colorful bow ties and had the very perfect disposition to work with children.
Voljela sam gotovo u cijelosti vrijeme provedeno u ovoj bolnici, sa izuzetkom mojih fizikalnih terapija. Morala sam raditi nešto što je ličilo na bezbrojna ponavljanja vježbi sa ovim glomaznim, elastičnim trakama -- različitih boja -- da se pomogne izgradnja mojih nožnih mišića. A ja sam mrzila te trake više od bilo čega drugog. Mrzila sam ih, pogrdno ih zvala. Mrzila sam ih. I, znate, već sam pregovarala, kao petogodišnja djevojčica, sa dr. P. da se izvučem iz ovog vježbanja, bez uspjeha, naravno. I, jednog dana, on je došao na moje vježbe -- iscrpljujuće i nemilosrdne, te vježbe -- i rekao mi je, "Opa. Aimee, ti si tako jaka i snažna mala djevojčica, mislim da ćeš pokidati ove trake. Ako ih pokidaš, ja ću ti dati sto dolara."
I loved almost everything about my time spent at this hospital, with the exception of my physical therapy sessions. I had to do what seemed like innumerable repetitions of exercises with these thick, elastic bands -- different colors, you know -- to help build up my leg muscles, and I hated these bands more than anything -- I hated them, had names for them. I hated them. And, you know, I was already bargaining, as a five year-old child, with Dr. P to try to get out of doing these exercises, unsuccessfully, of course. And, one day, he came in to my session -- exhaustive and unforgiving, these sessions -- and he said to me, "Wow. Aimee, you are such a strong and powerful little girl, I think you're going to break one of those bands. When you do break it, I'm going to give you a hundred bucks."
To je naravno bio mali trik dr. P-a da me nagovori da radim vježbe koje nisam htjela raditi zbog mogućnosti da ću biti najbogatija petogodišnjakinja na drugom spratu bolnice, ali ono što je on ustvari učinio za mene je preoblikovanje jednog groznog svakodnevnog događaja u novo i obećavajuće iskustvo za mene. I danas se moram zapitati, do koje mjere su njegova vizija i njegovo deklarisanje mene kao snažne i moćne male djevojčice, oblikovali moju osobnu predstavu o samoj sebi kao prirodno snažnoj, moćnoj i atletskoj osobi u poodmakloj budućnosti.
Now, of course, this was a simple ploy on Dr. P's part to get me to do the exercises I didn't want to do before the prospect of being the richest five-year-old in the second floor ward, but what he effectively did for me was reshape an awful daily occurrence into a new and promising experience for me. And I have to wonder today to what extent his vision and his declaration of me as a strong and powerful little girl shaped my own view of myself as an inherently strong, powerful and athletic person well into the future.
Ovo je primjer kako odrasli na pozicijama moći mogu potaknuti moć djeteta. Ali u prethodnim primjerima iz ovog rječnika sinonima, naš jezik nam ne dopušta da ostvarimo sebe onako kako bi smo svi željeli, mogućnost da pojedinac sebe vidi kao sposobnog. Naš jezik nije išao u korak sa promjenama u našem društvu, od kojih su mnoge vezane za tehnologiju. Uistinu, sa medicinske tačke gledišta, moje noge, laserska korekcija vida, koljeno od titanijuma i umjetni kuk za tijela izložena procesu starenja koji dopuštaju ljudima da potpuno koriste svoje sposobnosti, i nadilaze ograničenja koja im je priroda nametnula, a da ne pominjemo platforme društvenog umrežavanja, koje dopuštaju ljudima da se samostalno identificiraju, definirajući lično svoj opis, tako da mogu postati dio globalnih grupa po vlastitom izboru. Tako nam tehnologija danas možda jasnije otkriva ono što je oduvijek bila istina, da svako ima nešto osobito i snažno da ponudi našem društvu, i da je ljudska sposobnost prilagođavanja naše najveće dobro.
This is an example of how adults in positions of power can ignite the power of a child. But, in the previous instances of those thesaurus entries, our language isn't allowing us to evolve into the reality that we would all want, the possibility of an individual to see themselves as capable. Our language hasn't caught up with the changes in our society, many of which have been brought about by technology. Certainly, from a medical standpoint, my legs, laser surgery for vision impairment, titanium knees and hip replacements for aging bodies that are allowing people to more fully engage with their abilities, and move beyond the limits that nature has imposed on them -- not to mention social networking platforms allow people to self-identify, to claim their own descriptions of themselves, so they can go align with global groups of their own choosing. So, perhaps technology is revealing more clearly to us now what has always been a truth: that everyone has something rare and powerful to offer our society, and that the human ability to adapt is our greatest asset.
Ljudska sposobnost prilagođavanja, to je jedna interesantna stvar, zato što ljudi neprestano žele da sa mnom razgovaraju o prevazilaženju nedaće, i ja ću nešto priznati. Ova fraza mi nikad nije bila razumljiva, i uvijek sam osjećala nelagodu pokušavajući odgovoriti ljudima na njihova pitanja u vezi s tim, i mislim da počinjem shvatati zašto je to tako. Implicitna u ovoj frazi o prevazilaženju nedaće je ideja da se uspjeh ili sreća događaju s onu stranu izazovnog iskustva neozlijeđeni ili neobilježeni iskustvom, kao da su se moji uspjesi u životu dogodili zahvaljujući sposobnosti da izbjegnem ili zaobiđem pretpostavljene zamke života sa protezama ili onoga što drugi ljudi percepiraju kao moju nesposobnost. Ali, u stvari, mi smo se promijenili. Naravno, mi smo obilježeni izazovom, bilo fizički, emocionalno ili i jedno i drugo. I predložiću da je to dobra stvar. Nedaća nije prepreka koju trebamo zaobići u cilju da obnovimo življnje naših života. To je dio našeg života. I nastojim misliti o tome kao o svojoj sijenci. Ponekad je vidim kao ogromnu, a ponekad je skoro neprimjetna, ali je uvijek sa mnom. I, svakako, ja ne pokušavam umanjiti uticaj, težinu nečije borbe.
The human ability to adapt, it's an interesting thing, because people have continually wanted to talk to me about overcoming adversity, and I'm going to make an admission: This phrase never sat right with me, and I always felt uneasy trying to answer people's questions about it, and I think I'm starting to figure out why. Implicit in this phrase of "overcoming adversity" is the idea that success, or happiness, is about emerging on the other side of a challenging experience unscathed or unmarked by the experience, as if my successes in life have come about from an ability to sidestep or circumnavigate the presumed pitfalls of a life with prosthetics, or what other people perceive as my disability. But, in fact, we are changed. We are marked, of course, by a challenge, whether physically, emotionally or both. And I'm going to suggest that this is a good thing. Adversity isn't an obstacle that we need to get around in order to resume living our life. It's part of our life. And I tend to think of it like my shadow. Sometimes I see a lot of it, sometimes there's very little, but it's always with me. And, certainly, I'm not trying to diminish the impact, the weight, of a person's struggle.
U životu postoji nedaća i izazov, i to je sve veoma realno i odnosi se na svakoga, ali pitanje nije da li ćete se suočiti sa nedaćom ili ne, nego kako ćete se suočiti. Tako naša odgovornost nije da naprosto štitimo one do kojih nam je stalo od nedaće, nego da ih dobro pripremimo za taj izazov. Mi činimo medvjeđu uslugu našoj djeci ako im stvaramo osjećaj da oni nisu opremljeni za prilagođavanje. Postoji jedna važna razlika i distinkcija između objektivne medicinske činjenice da sam ja amputirac i subjektivnog društvenog mišljenja da li sam ja nesposobna ili ne. I, zbilja, jedina realna i konzistentna nesposobnost sa kojom sam se morala suočiti je taj svijet koji misli da me može svesti na te definicije.
There is adversity and challenge in life, and it's all very real and relative to every single person, but the question isn't whether or not you're going to meet adversity, but how you're going to meet it. So, our responsibility is not simply shielding those we care for from adversity, but preparing them to meet it well. And we do a disservice to our kids when we make them feel that they're not equipped to adapt. There's an important difference and distinction between the objective medical fact of my being an amputee and the subjective societal opinion of whether or not I'm disabled. And, truthfully, the only real and consistent disability I've had to confront is the world ever thinking that I could be described by those definitions.
U našoj želji da zaštitimo one do kojih nam je stalo dajući im hladne, surove istine o njihovim medicinskim prognozama, ili, uistinu, prognozu o očekivanom kvalitetu njihovog života, moramo paziti da ne uzidamo prvu ciglu u zid koji će zapravo onesposobiti nekoga. Možda postojeći model koji samo gleda šta je neispravno u vama i kako to popraviti, ide više na ruku onesposobljavanja neke individue nego samo to oboljenje.
In our desire to protect those we care about by giving them the cold, hard truth about their medical prognosis, or, indeed, a prognosis on the expected quality of their life, we have to make sure that we don't put the first brick in a wall that will actually disable someone. Perhaps the existing model of only looking at what is broken in you and how do we fix it, serves to be more disabling to the individual than the pathology itself.
Ne tretirajući cjelovitost jedne osobe, ne priznavajući njenu potencijalnu snagu, mi stvaramo još jednu bolest na površini prirodne borbe koju ona proživljava. Mi efektvno rangiramo nečiju vrijednost za našu zajednicu. Tako mi trebamo istražiti patologiju i uvidjeti opseg ljudske sposobnosti. I što je najvažnije, postoji partnerstvo između onoga što poimamo kao nedostatak i naše najveće kreativne sposobnosti. Ne radi se ovdje o devalviranju ili negiranju ovih nastojanja kao nečega što hoćemo da izbjegnemo ili pometemo pod tepih, nego da umjesto toga prepoznamo mogućnsti upakovane u nedaću. Tako da možda ideja koju želim da izložim je ne u tolikoj mjeri savladavanje nedaće, koliko je to naše otvaranje prema njoj, njeno prigrljivanje, gombanje sa njom, da upotrijebim hrvački termin, možda čak i plesanje sa njom. I ako možda nedaću posmatramo kao prirodnu, konzistentnu i korisnu, manje smo opterećeni njenim prisustvom.
By not treating the wholeness of a person, by not acknowledging their potency, we are creating another ill on top of whatever natural struggle they might have. We are effectively grading someone's worth to our community. So we need to see through the pathology and into the range of human capability. And, most importantly, there's a partnership between those perceived deficiencies and our greatest creative ability. So it's not about devaluing, or negating, these more trying times as something we want to avoid or sweep under the rug, but instead to find those opportunities wrapped in the adversity. So maybe the idea I want to put out there is not so much overcoming adversity as it is opening ourselves up to it, embracing it, grappling with it, to use a wrestling term, maybe even dancing with it. And, perhaps, if we see adversity as natural, consistent and useful, we're less burdened by the presence of it.
Ove godine slavimo dvjestoti rođendan Čarlsa Darvina, a prije 150 godina, kad je pisao o evoluciji, mislim da je Darvin ilustrirao jednu istinu o ljudskom karakteru. Da parafraziram, ne preživljavaju najjače vrste, niti preživljavaju najinteligentniji, nego oni koji se najbolje adaptiraju na promjenu. Konflikt je geneza stvaranja. Iz Darvinovog rada, između ostalog, možemo prepoznati da se ljudska sposobnost da preživi i napreduje pokreće borbom ljudskog duha kroz konflikt u transformaciju. Tako, ponovo, transformacija, adaptacija, je naša najveća ljudska vještina. I, možda, dok se ne testiramo, ne znamo od čega smo napravljeni. Možda je to ono što nam nedaća pruža, osjećaj sebe, osjećaj naše sopstvene snage. Mi tako možemo sami sebi nešto pokloniti. Nedaću možemo nanovo promišljati kao nešto izvan i iznad pukog mučenja. Možda je možemo posmatrati kao promjenu. Nedaća je upravo promjena na koju se još nismo prilagodili.
This year we celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, and it was 150 years ago, when writing about evolution, that Darwin illustrated, I think, a truth about the human character. To paraphrase: It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor is it the most intelligent that survives; it is the one that is most adaptable to change. Conflict is the genesis of creation. From Darwin's work, amongst others, we can recognize that the human ability to survive and flourish is driven by the struggle of the human spirit through conflict into transformation. So, again, transformation, adaptation, is our greatest human skill. And, perhaps, until we're tested, we don't know what we're made of. Maybe that's what adversity gives us: a sense of self, a sense of our own power. So, we can give ourselves a gift. We can re-imagine adversity as something more than just tough times. Maybe we can see it as change. Adversity is just change that we haven't adapted ourselves to yet.
Mislim da je najveća nedaća koju smo sami sebi kreirali ta ideja normalnosti. Pa, ko je sad normalan? Ne postoji normalno. Postoji zajedničko. Postoji tipično. Ne postoji normalno. I da li biste željeli upoznati tu jadnu, monotonu osobu ako bi takva postojala? (Smijeh) Ne mislim da bi. Ako možemo promijeniti ovu paradigmu postizanja normalnosti u onu koja se tiče mogućnosti ili potencijala, uz čak malo više rizika, možemo osloboditi snagu većeg broja djece, i pozvati ih da kroz svoje nesvakidašnje i vrijedne sposobnosti doprinesu zajednici.
I think the greatest adversity that we've created for ourselves is this idea of normalcy. Now, who's normal? There's no normal. There's common, there's typical. There's no normal, and would you want to meet that poor, beige person if they existed? (Laughter) I don't think so. If we can change this paradigm from one of achieving normalcy to one of possibility -- or potency, to be even a little bit more dangerous -- we can release the power of so many more children, and invite them to engage their rare and valuable abilities with the community.
Antropolozi nam govore da nešto što mi kao ljudska bića uvijek tražimo od članova zajednice je da budu od koristi, da budu sposobni da doprinose. Postoji dokaz da su neandertalci prije 60.000 godina, nosili svoje starije članove i one sa ozbiljnim fizičkim ozljedama, i možda zato što se životno iskustvo opstanka ovih ljudi pokazalo vrijednim za zajednicu: oni nisu ove ljude posmatrali kao polomljene i beskorisne: oni su smatrani posebnim i vrijednim.
Anthropologists tell us that the one thing we as humans have always required of our community members is to be of use, to be able to contribute. There's evidence that Neanderthals, 60,000 years ago, carried their elderly and those with serious physical injury, and perhaps it's because the life experience of survival of these people proved of value to the community. They didn't view these people as broken and useless; they were seen as rare and valuable.
Prije nekoloko godina, bila sam na pijaci u gradu u kojem sam odrasla u toj crvenoj zoni Sjeveroistočne Pensilvanije, i stajala nad hrpom paradaiza. Bilo je ljeto. Nosila sam šorc. Čujem sam glas čovjeka iza mene koji govori, "Pa dobro, ako to nije Aimee Mullins." I ja se okrećem, vidim starijeg čovjeka. Nemam pojma ko je on.
A few years ago, I was in a food market in the town where I grew up in that red zone in northeastern Pennsylvania, and I was standing over a bushel of tomatoes. It was summertime: I had shorts on. I hear this guy, his voice behind me say, "Well, if it isn't Aimee Mullins." And I turn around, and it's this older man. I have no idea who he is.
Rekla sam, "Izvinite gospodine, da li se mi poznajemo? Ne sjećam se da sam vas upoznala."
And I said, "I'm sorry, sir, have we met? I don't remember meeting you."
On reče, "Pa dobro, i ne možeš se sjećati da si me upoznala. Mislim, kad smo se upoznavali ja sam te izvlačio iz maternice tvoje majke." (Smijeh) O, taj čovjek. I, ali naravno, zapravo, ukapirala sam.
He said, "Well, you wouldn't remember meeting me. I mean, when we met I was delivering you from your mother's womb." (Laughter) Oh, that guy. And, but of course, actually, it did click.
Taj čovjek je bio dr. Kean, čovjek kojeg sam sam znala samo kroz priče moje majke o tom danu, zato što sam naravno, u svom tipičnom stilu, stigla sa dvije sedmice zakašnjenja na svoj rođendan. I tako je, majčin ginekolog otišao na odmor, pa je čovjek koji je izvršio porođaj bio potpuno nepoznat mojim roditeljima. I zato što sam rođena bez lisne kosti, i imala uvrnuta stopala, i par nožnih prsta u ovom stopalu i par u ovom drugom, on je morao da bude taj, ovaj stranac je morao da bude taj koji je donio loše vijesti.
This man was Dr. Kean, a man that I had only known about through my mother's stories of that day, because, of course, typical fashion, I arrived late for my birthday by two weeks. And so my mother's prenatal physician had gone on vacation, so the man who delivered me was a complete stranger to my parents. And, because I was born without the fibula bones, and had feet turned in, and a few toes in this foot and a few toes in that, he had to be the bearer -- this stranger had to be the bearer of bad news.
Rekao mi je, "Morao sam dati ovu prognozu tvojim roditeljima da ti nikad nećeš prohodati, i da nikad nećeš imati vrstu mobilnosti koju imaju druga djeca ili neku neovisnost u životu, i ti si me sve od tada pravila lažovom." (Smijeh) (Aplauz)
He said to me, "I had to give this prognosis to your parents that you would never walk, and you would never have the kind of mobility that other kids have or any kind of life of independence, and you've been making liar out of me ever since." (Laughter) (Applause)
Čudesna stvar je to što je rekao da je sakupljao novinske isječke tokom cijelog mog djetinjstva, bilo da se radilo o odlikovanju za pravopis drugom razredu osnovne, maršu sa djevojkama skautima, kao što znate, Halloween parada, kad sam dobila stipendiju za koledž, ili bilo koja moja sportska pobjeda, i on je to koristio i integrirao u predavanja za redovne studente, studente medicine sa Hahnemann i Hershey medicinskih škola. I nazvao je ovaj dio predavanja X Factor, potencijal ljudske volje. Nijedna prognoza ne može objasniti koliko ovo može biti snažno kao odrednica u kvalitetu nečijeg života. I dr. Kean je nastavio da mi govori, rekao je, "Po mom iskustvu, ukoliko nije drugačije rečeno više puta, i čak ako je mu dato nešto malo podrške, ako je prepušteno vlastitim mehanizmima, dijete će uspjeti."
The extraordinary thing is that he said he had saved newspaper clippings throughout my whole childhood, whether winning a second grade spelling bee, marching with the Girl Scouts, you know, the Halloween parade, winning my college scholarship, or any of my sports victories, and he was using it, and integrating it into teaching resident students, med students from Hahnemann Medical School and Hershey Medical School. And he called this part of the course the X Factor, the potential of the human will. No prognosis can account for how powerful this could be as a determinant in the quality of someone's life. And Dr. Kean went on to tell me, he said, "In my experience, unless repeatedly told otherwise, and even if given a modicum of support, if left to their own devices, a child will achieve."
Vidite, dr. Kean je napravio taj pomak u mišljenju. On je shvatio da postoji razlika između medicinskog stanja i onoga šta neko može učiniti sa tim. I bio je pomak u mom mišljenju tokom vremena, u tome, da ste me pitali kad sam imala 15 godina, ja bih zamijenila proteze sa nogama od kosti i mesa, ne bih oklijevala ni sekundu. Čeznula sam tada za tom vrstom normalnosti. Ako me danas pitate, nisam tako sigurna. A to je zbog iskustava koje sam imala s njima, ne uprkos iskustvima koje sam imala sa njima. Možda se ovaj pomak u meni desio zato što sam bila u dodiru sa više ljudi koji su otvorili vrata za mene nego sa onima koji su me sputavali i bacali sjenke na mene.
See, Dr. Kean made that shift in thinking. He understood that there's a difference between the medical condition and what someone might do with it. And there's been a shift in my thinking over time, in that, if you had asked me at 15 years old, if I would have traded prosthetics for flesh-and-bone legs, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second. I aspired to that kind of normalcy back then. But if you ask me today, I'm not so sure. And it's because of the experiences I've had with them, not in spite of the experiences I've had with them. And perhaps this shift in me has happened because I've been exposed to more people who have opened doors for me than those who have put lids and cast shadows on me.
Vidite, sve što vam zaista treba, je jedna osoba koja će vam otkriti vašu osobnu moć i vi letite. Ako nekome možete dati ključ njegove osobne moći, ljudski duh je tako receptivan, ako to možete učiniti i otvoriti vrata za nekoga u odsudnom momentu, vi ga educirate u najboljem smislu. Vi ih učite da otvore vrata za sebe same. U stvari, tačno značenje riječi "educirati" potiče iz korjena riječi "izvući" To znači, iznijeti na vidjelo ono što je unutar, izvući potencijal. Tako ponovo, koji potencijal želimo izvući?
See, all you really need is one person to show you the epiphany of your own power, and you're off. If you can hand somebody the key to their own power -- the human spirit is so receptive -- if you can do that and open a door for someone at a crucial moment, you are educating them in the best sense. You're teaching them to open doors for themselves. In fact, the exact meaning of the word "educate" comes from the root word "educe." It means "to bring forth what is within, to bring out potential." So again, which potential do we want to bring out?
Bila je jedna studija slučaja 1960 u Britaniji, sa učenicima osnovnih škola i gimnazijalcima. Zove se probe toka. Mi to ovdje u SAD zovemo praćenje. Učenici su podijeljeni na grupe A, B, C, D itd. Tako da A učenici imaju najteži nastavni program, najbolje nastavnike itd. Dakle, oni su uzeli, tokom tromjesečnog perioda, učenike D nivoa i dali im A program, rekli im da su oni A i rekli im da su pametni. I na kraju ovog tromjesečnog perioda, oni su imali rezultate A nivoa.
There was a case study done in 1960s Britain, when they were moving from grammar schools to comprehensive schools. It's called the streaming trials. We call it "tracking" here in the States. It's separating students from A, B, C, D and so on. And the "A students" get the tougher curriculum, the best teachers, etc. Well, they took, over a three-month period, D-level students, gave them A's, told them they were "A's," told them they were bright, and at the end of this three-month period, they were performing at A-level.
I, naravno, tužno naličje ove studije, je da su oni uzeli A učenike i rekli im da su D. I ono što se dogodilo na kraju tromjesečnog perioda. Neki su se još motali po školi, a neki su je napustili. Krucijalni dio ove studije je da su i nastavnici zavarani. Nastavnici nisu znali da je izvršena zamjena. Jednostavno im je rečeno ovo su A učenici, ovo su D učenici. I oni su ih na taj način učili i tretirali.
And, of course, the heartbreaking, flip side of this study, is that they took the "A students" and told them they were "D's." And that's what happened at the end of that three-month period. Those who were still around in school, besides the people who had dropped out. A crucial part of this case study was that the teachers were duped too. The teachers didn't know a switch had been made. They were simply told, "These are the 'A-students,' these are the 'D-students.'" And that's how they went about teaching them and treating them.
Tako da mislim da je jedina nesposobnost slomljeni duh, duh koji je slomljen nema nade. Ne vidi ljepotu. Više ne posjeduje prirodnu, dječju radoznalost i našu unutrašnju sposobnost imaginacije. Ako umjesto toga, možemo ojačati ljudski duh da održava nadu, da vidi ljepotu u sebi i drugima, da bude radoznao i imaginativan, onda mi istinski dobro koristimo našu snagu. Kada duh ima te kvalitete, u stanju smo da kreiramo nove stvarnosti i nove načine bitisanja.
So, I think that the only true disability is a crushed spirit, a spirit that's been crushed doesn't have hope, it doesn't see beauty, it no longer has our natural, childlike curiosity and our innate ability to imagine. If instead, we can bolster a human spirit to keep hope, to see beauty in themselves and others, to be curious and imaginative, then we are truly using our power well. When a spirit has those qualities, we are able to create new realities and new ways of being.
Želim da vam ostavim jednu pjesmu čiji je autor perzijski pjesnik iz četrnaestog stoljeća po imenu Hafiz o kojoj mi je pričao moj prijatelj Jacques Dembois. A pjesma se zove "Bog koji samo četiri riječi zna." "Svako dijete je upoznalo Boga, ne Boga imena, ne Boga nemogućnosti, nego Boga koji samo četiri riječi zna i stalno ih ponavlja, govoreći, dođite zaplesati sa mnom" Dođite zaplesati sa mnom.
I'd like to leave you with a poem by a fourteenth-century Persian poet named Hafiz that my friend, Jacques Dembois told me about, and the poem is called "The God Who Only Knows Four Words": "Every child has known God, not the God of names, not the God of don'ts, but the God who only knows four words and keeps repeating them, saying, 'Come dance with me. Come, dance with me. Come, dance with me.'"
Hvala vam. Aplauz
Thank you. (Applause)