【正文】 ing them.so, i think that the only true disability is a crushed spirit, a spirit that39。dstudents.39。astudents,39。s what happened at the end of that threemonth 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 didn39。s,” told them they were bright, and at the end of this threemonth period, they were performing at alevel.and, of course, the heartbreaking, flip side of this study, is that they took the “a students” and told them they were “d39。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 threemonth period, dlevel students, gave them a39。re teaching them to open doors for themselves. in fact, the e_act meaning of the word “educate” es 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?there was a case study done in 1960s britain, when they were moving from grammar schools to prehensive schools. it39。ve been e_posed to more people who have opened doors for me than those who have put lids and cast shadows on me.see, all you really need is one person to show you the epiphany of your own power, and you39。ve had with them, not in spite of the e_periences i39。m not so sure. and it39。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 fleshandbone legs, i wouldn39。s life. and dr. kean went on to tell me, he said, “in my e_perience, unless repeatedly told otherwise, and even if given a modicum of support, if left to their own devices, a child will achieve.”see, dr. kean made that shift in thinking. he understood that there39。s prenatal physician had gone on vacation, so the man who delivered me was a plete 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.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 you39。s womb.” (laughter) oh, that guy. and, but of course, actually, it did click.this man was dr. kean, a man that i had only known about through my mother39。t remember meeting you.”he said, “well, you wouldn39。s this older man. i have no idea who he is.and i said, “i39。 they were seen as rare and valuable.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 isn39。s because the life e_perience of survival of these people proved of value to the munity. they didn39。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 munity.anthropologists tell us that the one thing we as humans have always required of our munity members is to be of use, to be able to contribute. there39。s typical. there39。s no normal. there39。ve created for ourselves is this idea of normalcy. now, who39。s what adversity gives us: a sense of self, a sense of our own power. so, we can give ourselves a gift. we can reimagine adversity as something more than just tough times. maybe we can see it as change. adversity is just change that we haven39。t know what we39。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 we39。s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor is it the most intelligent that survives。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 overing 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, we39。s worth to our munity. so we need to see through the pathology and into the range of human capability. and, most importantly, there39。ve had to confront is the world ever thinking that i could be described by those definitions.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 e_pected quality of their life, we have to make sure that we don39。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 i39。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 they39。t whether or not you39。s struggle.there is adversity and challenge in life, and it39。s always with me. and, certainly, i39。s part of our life. and i tend to think of it like my shadow. sometimes i see a lot of it, sometimes there39。m going to suggest that this is a good thing. adversity isn39。s questions about it, and i think i39。s an interesting thing, because people have continually wanted to talk to me about overing adversity, and i39。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 hasn39。s part to get