How To Become Batman
How To Become Batman
Hosts: Hanna Rosin & Alix Spiegel
This podcast is arguing that if people change their expectations then blind people will be able to see. It is an extreme example of a concept that I have always been fascinated by: enabling. Throughout the podcast you learn about Daniel who is a blind man that taught himself echolocation as a child. His mother allowed him to experiment with the world around him. She banished her own fear and raised him like a seeing child. He was allowed to climb trees, walk to school, and even learned to ride a bike. Thinking about this as a seeing person seems so unlikely. Your first thought is probably "I would never be able to ride a bike without my eyes!" Daniel believes that these expectations are what hold people back from achieving all that they can.
When you break this down to a smaller, less extreme example it is easier to see the effects and understand. If someone does everything for you, you never learn how to do it yourself. If you never have the need to learn, you will never learn or be able to do it on your own. Working with young children I experience this all the time on smaller levels. The children who come from homes where parents are more likely to do things for their child are often the least independent children in school. When a child comes to Kindergarten or Preschool, it is often their first experience in school or possibly away from their parents. When a parent has done everything for you (usually out of love), you are incapable when they are not around.
Here is an example:
It is fall in Kindergarten, we are getting ready for recess. Time to put your coat on. Which children run over, put their arms in their sleeves, and zip up themselves? Which children come up to the teacher and say they don't know how to put on their jacket? The children who zip up themselves are most likely able to because someone taught them how to do it themselves and then has the expectation that they must do it themselves. The child who does not zip up their own jacket does not have this expectation because someone has always zipped it up for them. Even though most of these parents think they are helping and caring for their child, they are preventing them from the experience of learning.
Often it is hard for people to see that their love is hindering a person from achieving all they can. In my classroom I hold high expectations of independence for my young students. I will show you how, but you must try to zip your coat on your own before asking for help. Pushing people to their limits often seems extreme and can sometimes come off as mean. When, in my opinion, it is when the best learning occurs and confidence is built. Of course it is a teacher and parents job to catch them when they fall, but you must help them believe that they are capable of anything.
"When you lighten someones load, you don't allow them to expand."
This quote rang so true to me. In my personal life, I was raised by a mother who always wants to lighten your load and do anything she can for you. Of course this comes from a place of love and is always appreciated, especially when I visit home and she does my laundry. But when I got to college, I did not know how to do my own laundry. By being forced into this state of independence I had no choice but to learn. Would I have learned if I never left home?
Of course zipping your jacket and doing laundry are very small examples of being independent. But when we think of it on a larger scale, imagine the possibilities having high expectations can create. Helping and enabling are different things. Helping is teaching someone how to do something or doing something for someone that they are not capable of doing themselves. Enabling is when we lower our expectations and do something for someone that they are able to do for themselves. Listening to this podcast and imaging that expectations can cause a blind person to see seemed unlikely, but after listening, it makes sense. People are capable of amazing things and sometimes you need to be pushed to your limits and have people's expectations set very high in order to see what you are truly capable of.
I was very interested to see what Daniel looked like!
Here is a video of him doing an interview and riding a bike:
Hello Jessica,
ReplyDeleteThis podcast was very powerful and now more than ever I believe that children who are actively engaged in their own education process will definitely become successful lifelong learners just like Mr. Daniel Kish.
Mr. Kish's accomplishments are living proof that blind people can do anything they set in their minds. They are as capable of accomplishing their social and educational goals as a person whose eyesight is good. Mr. Kish has proven to us all that blind people are not limited, quite the contrary, blind people will perform and will excel. Mr. Kish is living proof of persistence, endurance. Mr. Kish proved to the entire world that Blindness is a disability, not an inability. Mr. Kish have demonstrated again and again that blind people should have the right to be treated among people without disability. He believes blind people should not feel embarrassed, they should not feel as a lesser person because of this impairment. He truly believes that Disability is not with sense or body; it is with mind and soul.
As caring educators, we must continue to believe, to have high expectations in our student’s potential to succeed. Students will learn to become independent learners and will use the knowledge obtained in class and also outside of class as they interact in life. If we do not believe and inspire them to believe in themselves, they will think they are not worthy of the chance to try. They will give up on their dreams. Educators have the power to help students fulfill their potential and we will do that simply by always having high expectations and by believing in our students capabilities to accomplish their goals. Our job is to provide them with the tools they need to become productive members of society.
Success will be the product of hard work, persistence, motivation, but we must show our students that we care and that we believe in their capabilities. We also have to show them that we will be right next to them supporting them thru their educational process.
As an Early Childhood educator, I definitely understand when children come to you and can't zip their own jacket because their family has always done it for them. I think your rule in having the child try first before asking for help tells the child that you have high expectations for them, you know he/she can do it! How do we know when we are enabling and when we are just helping? How would we know that a blind person could necessarily climb trees and ride a bicycle? I guess we wouldn't necessarily know unless we held high expectations that the blind person is capable of doing anything that he chooses to do.
ReplyDeleteAs educators, we all probably see the world of helicopter parenting. I have students who constantly leave their garbage on the floor, forgetting homework because "Mom forgot to put it in my backpack," and parents who thought it was my job to make sure their 11 year old child had his sweater under his coat when he was dismissed from school. By enabling, we are limiting our students. They never know how to fail, feel pain or persevere at difficult tasks.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am not talking about students who have disabilities, Daniel's journey is a lesson for all to learn. We never know what we are capable of until we are free to make mistakes and have accidents.
In yoga there is a living yoga principle called tapas, which is translated to mean self-discipline. We all want to protect ourselves and our children from emotional, physical and mental pain. Often times when we prolong a difficult situation, we eventually have to deal with it and find it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. This leads to experiences that foster our growth. Tapas also means burning. I think often about a bird diving into the flames and rising among the embers as a Phoenix with newly acquired knowledge, strength and wisdom. We need to feel that burn in order to experience those rewards. We cannot experience happiness and success without pain and failure. Daniel's journey can be a lesson for all of us.
I appreciate the way you differentiate here between helping and enabling. It's important for educators to be attentive to the ways we treat people even (or perhaps especially) when we mean well. We create meaning not just through our words and ideas but through concrete actions on/towards/with people. This can feel abstract but it has profound implications especially for our most vulnerable students.
ReplyDelete