Re: The Gift of Language.

Thanks, Heidi. It's good to see that there are also a few civilized people
on this group. I expect there always have been, but an ignorant,
dictatorial cabal still does its best to prevail over them.

all the best!

alex


"Heidi Graw" <hgraw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:KuDvh.2991$Oa.372@xxxxxxxxxxx
In another post Alex Gross provided a link to the following article. I
would just like to make some comments of my own regarding Theodore
Dalrymple's article.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_4_urbanities-language.html

The Gift of Language
Theodore Dalrymple

Theodore wrote:

"I miss, for instance, the sudden illumination into the worldview of my
patients that their replies to simple questions sometimes gave me."

****

I know the feeling. I remember when I took one of my sons for a walk. He
was just a toddler at that time and had limited vocabulary. As we were
walking hand in hand, we had a "Mommy and son" chat about all sorts of
things that we discovered along the way. Then at some point during our
conversation, I wanted to get an idea about his self-image. What did he
think of himself? So, I asked this little boy, who was no older than one
and a half years, "Billy, are you a good boy?"

He answered, "No!"

Astonished by this answer, I then asked him, "Are you a bad boy?"

He answered, "No! I'm Billy!"

Well! Didn't that put Mommy in her place! He's neither good nor bad,
he's
simply "Billy!" and I'm not to judge him! He's Billy, no more and no
less!
That little boy taught Mommy a very valuable lesson...one she never
forgot!
;-)

****

"I delighted in what my patients said. One of them always laced his
statements with proverbs, which he invariably mangled. "Sometimes,
doctor,"
he said to me one day, "I feel like the little boy with his finger in the
dike, crying wolf."

****

When Billy was four years old, I had sewn him a "little devil" costume for
Hallowe'en. When he placed the horns on his head and looked in the
mirror,
he turned to me and proudly exclaimed, "Look, Mommy! I'm horny!" LOL...

****

"In their dealings with authority, they were at a huge disadvantage-a
disaster, since so many of them depended upon various public bureaucracies
for so many of their needs, from their housing and health care to their
income and the education of their children. I would find myself dealing on
their behalf with those bureaucracies, which were often simultaneously
bullying and incompetent; and what officialdom had claimed for months or
even years to be impossible suddenly, on my intervention, became possible
within a week. Of course, it was not my mastery of language alone that
produced this result; rather, my mastery of language signaled my capacity
to
make serious trouble for the bureaucrats if they did not do as I asked. I
do
not think it is a coincidence that the offices of all those bureaucracies
were increasingly installing security barriers against the physical
attacks
on the staff by enraged but inarticulate dependents."

****

Oh my goodness! Does that ever bring back a flood of memories regarding
my
dealings with the local School Board. I can agree with the authorities'
attempts to bully parents into submission and acceptance. Those attempts
to
intimidate me, however, simply didn't work. I ended up gaining the
reputation of a "formidable opponent"...a label the Superintendent of
Schools pegged on me. After years of advocacy work on behalf of parents,
I
ended up with the "District Parent Leadership Award!" Word got around
that
if any parent had difficulties with the authorities they were to call me.
"Heidi knows how to get things done!" Sometimes parents simply needed
some
help and advice on how to approach a particular problem, who to talk to,
how
to talk to them, and how to document everything. On quite a few occasions
I
was put on the Board's Agenda. The local newspaper also printed darn near
every letter I ever sent them about local school issues. I raised some
serious sh*t which even led to a Provincial Review on Special Education.
;-)

****

"It is fatuous to expect that the most complex of human faculties,
language,
requires no special training to develop it to its highest possible power."

****

Btw, the handicapped can learn to express themselves, too. They may need
a
different educational approach and they may require technology to help
them
express themselves. There are, however, some *severely* mentally
handicapped people whose lights glow so dim that a lot of guess work has
to
be done by their advocates and/or guardians. For these guardians, the
question always exists in their minds, "How would I feel if I were in that
situation?" Might I feel cold or too hot? Might I be hungry at about
this
time? Might I just want to rest for awhile? Might I enjoy some outside
stimulus? Cues can be picked up if one pays very close attention and if
one
actually lives in the same house with that mentally handicapped person.
After awhile, needs can be anticipated. Tiny movements may give some clue
as to what is wanted. It is possible to communicate even with *severely*
mentally handicapped persons. A smile on the face can indicate and
communicate an awful lot!

Thanks for posting that link. I found it very interesting.

Heidi









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