A sample speech

Listening to speeches enriches our knowledge and probably changes our perception in life. Below, I would like to share an excerpt speech by Caroline Kay Geiman entitled "Are They Really Unteachable?

sample speech: Are They Really Unteachable?

Read the speech and internalize.

In Charles Schulz's popular cartoon depiction of happiness, one of his definitions has special significance for the American school system. The drawing shows Linus, with his eyes closed in a state of supreme bliss, a broad smile across two-thirds of his face and holding a report card upon which is a big bold "A". The caption reads: "Happiness is finding out you're not so dumb after all." For once, happiness is not defined as a function of material possessions, yet even this happiness is practically unattainable for the "unteachables" of the city slums. Are these children intellectually inferior? Are they unable to learn? Unfortunately, too many people have answered "yes" to these questions and promptly dismissed the issue.

If we base our answers on the results of IQ tests, "yes" answers may seem justified. In the largest American metropolitan areas, the students in the top school of the wealthiest suburbs have an average IQ of 120; those in the bottom school of the worst slums have an average IQ of 85. Valid actual proof, right?

In a city-wide group testing program in the New York City schools, IQ scores showed a lower and slower rate of increase with grade advancement in the large, low socio-economic districts than in the median for the city as a whole. In the third grade there was a ten point difference in IQ's; in the sixth grade, a seventeen point difference; and in the eight grade, a twenty point difference. Valid actual proof again, right?

No, wrong! The fallacy of these "facts" lies in the IQ test itself. The very fact that IQ test results vary over a given span of time indicates as many indicators and educators today are realizing that these are in truth tests of cultural experience and not of native ability. These children of the slums are underdeveloped culturally, but are not innately unintelligent. This deficiency can and should be corrected....

Dr. Martin Deutsch, the director of the Institution for Development Studies of New Your Medical College's Department of Psychiatry, became interested in the plight of the culturally deprived child in the public schools and studied the problem for five years. Following his theory that "intelligence" is not inherited, but dynamic process that can be stunted or stimulated by "experience", he inaugurated the first scientific and concerted attempt by any public school system to confront the problem of the education of the poor pre-school age child. Ninety-six four year olds in New York City were given the advantage of this progressive program. Let's see what methods were used...

Rhoda was one of the subjects of this experiment. In the classroom she stands, clutching her favorite toys - a negro doll and a toy baby bottle. The game she knows is caring for the baby, bathing it, feeding it, rocking it... After eleven weeks in school, Rhoda still hasn't spoken or smiled. Scowling fiercely now, she reaches out for some wax grapes and puts them in a frying pan on the stove. Hearing a noise behind her, the teacher turned around to discover Rhoda struggling with a pan. She heard Rhoda speak her first whole sentence: "Dem goddam peaches is burnin'." It's poor English; its profane, but it is a complete thought, and this is a major achievement. Rhoda was rewarded with a big hug from her teacher, not scolded for her profanity.

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