While researching Paulo Freire, I came across a quote, which, to my opinion, captures a lot of our (pws's) social reality and what we nromally grow up believing blindly... Here it is. Read it slowly and carefully, at least twice:
Of course, Paulo was talking about poverty and education; How mainstream education, perpetuates status quo, unequal social relationships and poverty etc. But, if I may take a little liberty, I see a lot of similarity: non-stutterers make fun of stutterers in childhood, which instills the idea in us- that stammering is bad and should be kept hidden. In other words: dont stammer; dont even talk of stammering; dont even think about it. THIS effectively shuts off any path we could take as adults, to self-help or even therapy- because for all that, we will have to accept that we stammer and talk about it!
In other words, our computer goes into a reiterative (circular) script and the compu becomes very slow, non-responsive and finally hangs (sometime you get BSOD too, if you are lucky!). People who have teased us as a child also grow up into responsible adults, who tell us: "No, you dont stammer. You just tend to think & speak a little fast. That is all." (and of course if they have a choice, they will select someone else in the interview, to work with them..)
Wow, what a bind we are in! If you have found any way of coming out of this vicious downward spiral of SILENCE, share it with TISA; TISA will award you PhD in Freirian Pedagogy of Fluency Disorders...
PS: Title is a Hindi idiom, meaning: the powerful beat the weak and strictly forbid any crying!
According to Freire, the system of dominant social relations create a culture of silence that instills a negative, silenced and suppressed self-image into the oppressed. The learner must develop a critical consciousness in order to recognize that this culture of silence is created to oppress. Also, a culture of silence can cause the "dominated individuals [to] lose the means by which to critically respond to the culture that is forced on them by a dominant culture." Social domination of race and class are interleaved into the conventional educational system, through which the “culture of silence” eliminates the "paths of thought that lead to a language of critique” (From- wikipedia)
Of course, Paulo was talking about poverty and education; How mainstream education, perpetuates status quo, unequal social relationships and poverty etc. But, if I may take a little liberty, I see a lot of similarity: non-stutterers make fun of stutterers in childhood, which instills the idea in us- that stammering is bad and should be kept hidden. In other words: dont stammer; dont even talk of stammering; dont even think about it. THIS effectively shuts off any path we could take as adults, to self-help or even therapy- because for all that, we will have to accept that we stammer and talk about it!
In other words, our computer goes into a reiterative (circular) script and the compu becomes very slow, non-responsive and finally hangs (sometime you get BSOD too, if you are lucky!). People who have teased us as a child also grow up into responsible adults, who tell us: "No, you dont stammer. You just tend to think & speak a little fast. That is all." (and of course if they have a choice, they will select someone else in the interview, to work with them..)
Wow, what a bind we are in! If you have found any way of coming out of this vicious downward spiral of SILENCE, share it with TISA; TISA will award you PhD in Freirian Pedagogy of Fluency Disorders...
PS: Title is a Hindi idiom, meaning: the powerful beat the weak and strictly forbid any crying!
3 comments:
So damn true,every human is seeking dominance over the other,taking my example,as a kid I was pretty good in academics and sports and stuttered really less,I used to get lots of awards and recognition,so my fellow mates had to find a way to exert any kind of dominance they could and hence would make fun of my speech,they were desperate to find something,and I would say they did get pretty successful at that time as I had begun to believe they were superior to me,at that time I wish instead of the speech therapy and slow reading crap if someone had told me to not give a damn then the inferior complex I went through could have been avoided,as a suggestion to become strong in this ever dominating world you can try to maintain a diary and just observe your physical and emotional self each day,its a lot more helpful than you can imagine,plane observation can do wonders in letting you get rid of the nonsense beliefs you have acquired over the years,you can also refer the book speech is a river by ruth meads
Dhruva, I agree. There is a hierarchy in every society. The powerful and the powerless- the two castes are there. The people who tell us that stammering is bad and must be "cured", are also the people who want us to keep quiet about it because it is "shameful". Again, they are the same people who will debunk self-help and charge thousands for fixing our stutter.. Yes, average stammerer is in a bind; he cant get out of it.. PWS will have to VERY intelligent to see thru the game and come out of it.
One way that worked for me is practice of mindfulness and listening to Eckhart Tolle. Because until we are one with our thoughts, emotions and behaviour, its very hard to see this madness. But once you can see your thoughts, emotions and behaviour from a distance by being more aware and more conscious, you can see the madness of such living. And just seeing it is enough to start the liberation.
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