Twice Exceptional Learners (2e) | Jim Russell | TEDxGatewayArch — Transcript

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1. 0:19I'm actually here by mistake because
2. 0:22when I signed up for this, I thought
3. 0:25that the E in TEDx stood for education.
4. 0:28Well, as it turns out, stands for
5. 0:30entertainment. Now I feel obligated to
6. 0:33entertain you.
7. 0:35I need to watch my E's a little more
8. 0:37carefully.
9. 0:38I want to tell you there's a reason why
10. 0:39this was a problem for me. I'm severely
11. 0:42dyslexic. So, that's why I missed God
12. 0:44bless you. That's why I missed the E in
13. 0:46that particular situation.
14. 0:49So, I'm going to make up uh for that uh
15. 0:51problem by throwing you some chocolate
16. 0:53so that you're going to like me right
17. 0:54away. So,
18. 0:57you're awesome and wonderful. You look
19. 0:59terrific. And so do you. You are
20. 1:03awesome.
21. 1:05Human beings,
22. 1:06I want to tell you a little bit about
23. 1:07myself. I'm 6'4". I'm wearing a baseball
24. 1:11cap. It's probably as much as you really
25. 1:12need to know.
26. 1:14Oh, come on. It's funnier than that.
27. 1:18I uh I was in Oklahoma one time
28. 1:21and I was throwing chocolate out to to
29. 1:23the audience. And there was a woman
30. 1:25sitting about right where you are. And
31. 1:27she was looking at me like, I hate you
32. 1:29and all of your immediate relatives.
33. 1:33And I thought, I'm the great Dr. Jim. I
34. 1:35will win her over. So, I threw a piece
35. 1:37of chocolate to her and it was arcing
36. 1:39through the air and I could see it
37. 1:41coming down and I knew I was going to be
38. 1:42wonderful and it went blonk right in her
39. 1:44hot coffee and spilled on her legs.
40. 1:49Didn't win her over.
41. 1:52The kind of guy I am is when I first
42. 1:54started my practice,
43. 1:56I lived in a township where they put
44. 1:57marks on the tires, and I'm a little
45. 2:00OCD. It sort of bothers me a little bit
46. 2:02when they do that. So, I figured out
47. 2:04that if I moved my Jeep up 3 ft on the
48. 2:07even days and moved it back 2 ft on the
49. 2:10odd days,
50. 2:11on the 17th day, as I drove past City
51. 2:14Hall, if I was going 30 mph, the tires
52. 2:18would spell bite me.
53. 2:25I had a lot of free time.
54. 2:29And if the mayor was looking, I would
55. 2:30wave
56. 2:32as I went by.
57. 2:35My wife taught me an important lesson
58. 2:37about statistics. I went into the
59. 2:39bathroom and there was this much paper
60. 2:41in there.
61. 2:43And I took it out to her and I said,
62. 2:44"Dear wife, what's the deal with this
63. 2:45paper?" And she gave me the look where
64. 2:47one eyebrow goes up and the other one
65. 2:48goes down. I knew I was in trouble, but
66. 2:50I'm a guy.
67. 2:52I went back in a couple of weeks later
68. 2:54and I saw this. So, I went out and
69. 2:56confronted my wife, and my wife has a
70. 2:58PhD and she's way smarter than I am. And
71. 3:01she said, "Look, there's no pleasing
72. 3:03you. That's a 300% improvement."
73. 3:09The moral of that story is be careful
74. 3:11that the statistics actually work in the
75. 3:14real world.
76. 3:16I went to the seminary. That's another
77. 3:18TED Talk in and of itself, very briefly.
78. 3:22And while I was in the seminary, I
79. 3:24learned that if I was going to do good
80. 3:26things in the world, that I would have
81. 3:27to stand on the shoulders of giants. And
82. 3:30a couple of you human beings are here,
83. 3:31and I've been standing on your shoulders
84. 3:33for a number of years, so thank you.
85. 3:35And I also learned that if you can't
86. 3:38dazzle them with brilliance,
87. 3:40you should at least baffle them with
88. 3:42bullet points.
89. 3:46This is really funny cuz Ted hates
90. 3:48bullet points, but I was able to work it
91. 3:50in.
92. 3:53All right, humans. That's my attempt at
93. 3:55entertainment. Uh I would like to go on
94. 3:58now to tell you why I'm here today. I'm
95. 4:00here to tell you about twice exceptional
96. 4:01human beings.
97. 4:03Those are people who have enormous
98. 4:05strengths
99. 4:07with debilitating weaknesses. So, the
100. 4:10strengths make them gifted,
101. 4:12but the the disabilities are like, "Oh
102. 4:14my god." It's simultaneously within the
103. 4:16same person. There are about 300,000
104. 4:20twice exceptional human beings who are
105. 4:22small children, and about three times
106. 4:24that many adults. They're an N of one.
107. 4:28No two twice exceptional people are
108. 4:29exactly the same.
109. 4:32It's all about the neurons.
110. 4:34And just for a second here in this first
111. 4:36row where we don't have a full row, I'm
112. 4:37going to have you human beings do this.
113. 4:39Go like this.
114. 4:41All right. Now, just imagine somebody's
115. 4:42next to you.
116. 4:43So, the neurons don't actually touch.
117. 4:45What happens is an impulse comes this
118. 4:47way, a little chemical's released, it's
119. 4:50caught here, and then it goes on the
120. 4:51way. So, we've got a network here. You
121. 4:53are a great network. I'm loving your
122. 4:55networking. All the way down. So, it
123. 4:57says, "Turn on, turn on, turn on. Turn
124. 4:59off, turn off, turn off. Modulate a
125. 5:01little bit more, a little bit less." In
126. 5:03every possible direction. Those are the
127. 5:06net the the connections. You can put
128. 5:07your arms down. You got your deltoid
129. 5:09workout in there.
130. 5:11The number of connections you have
131. 5:13really determines how bright you are.
132. 5:15So, the the the most of us have about
133. 5:17100 trillion neuronal connections, but
134. 5:19some of you lucky human beings have 10
135. 5:22to the 79th neuronal connections. That's
136. 5:26a one with 79 zeros behind it.
137. 5:30You have my permission. You can say,
138. 5:31"Dr. Jim said that I am more complicated
139. 5:34than the Milky Way galaxy because I have
140. 5:36more connections in my mind than there
141. 5:38are stars in the universe."
142. 5:41We're here today talking about Bounce,
143. 5:43and this is all about the brain. So,
144. 5:45we're going to go high-tech. Go like
145. 5:47this in the front.
146. 5:49All right, if the connections are good
147. 5:50in the front, you can be gifted.
148. 5:53If the connections are bad in the back,
149. 5:55you may have a disability of some sort.
150. 5:58So, the giftedness is in the front, the
151. 6:01processing is in the back.
152. 6:03And giftedness is approximately two to
153. 6:06the top five percentile. Hot tip here,
154. 6:09IQ tests are just one way to find
155. 6:11giftedness and not really the only way.
156. 6:15I like to go to that great American
157. 6:17philosopher Forrest Gump.
158. 6:20Yay.
159. 6:21And I stole this from Forrest Gump.
160. 6:23Gifted is as gifted does.
161. 6:27So, if you're doing gifted, don't worry
162. 6:30about IQ tests.
163. 6:32What are the deficits? Well, the
164. 6:34deficits can be dyslexia, a disability
165. 6:36in reading, writing, or math. It can be
166. 6:38ADHD. It can be generalized anxiety
167. 6:41disorder. It can be the spectrum
168. 6:43disorders. It can be depression.
169. 6:47Here is a little example of how a
170. 6:49deficit can work. I'm going to change
171. 6:50the emphasis on one word, okay? I'm
172. 6:53dyslexic, so I'm going to try this.
173. 6:55I did not say he took my pencil. It was
174. 6:58me.
175. 7:00I didn't say he took my pencil. Ah,
176. 7:02that's that's him.
177. 7:04I didn't say he took my pencil. That
178. 7:07little son of a has something of
179. 7:08mine.
180. 7:12All I did was change a word, and what
181. 7:14happened to this sentence? Three
182. 7:16different meanings. What if you don't
183. 7:18have the wiring to understand that?
184. 7:21What if you don't have the wiring to
185. 7:23know an angry face
186. 7:27from an anxious face? That could be a
187. 7:30huge disability in our culture.
188. 7:33The rest of the world is like, "Dude,
189. 7:34what is up?"
190. 7:37Could be twice exceptional as what is
191. 7:38up. These are people with enormous
192. 7:41strengths and debilitating weaknesses.
193. 7:44Most human beings learn the basic skills
194. 7:47and as they go up to the more complex,
195. 7:49they get less and less competent. But
196. 7:51twice exceptional people are upside down
197. 7:53in their abilities. These human beings
198. 7:56get stuck with some basic skill
199. 7:58processing, but do the harder stuff
200. 8:00much, much, much better. They're way
201. 8:03better in medical school than they were
202. 8:05in the third grade.
203. 8:09Ernest Hemingway wrote one or two pretty
204. 8:11good books.
205. 8:12He was a terrible speller.
206. 8:14Dan Quayle, believe it or not, has
207. 8:17superior intelligence. I swear to you.
208. 8:23But he's remembered for the great potato
209. 8:25incident.
210. 8:29Poor Dan Quayle.
211. 8:30Please don't put the dunce hat on
212. 8:32somebody for a basic skill problem.
213. 8:34That's the back of the brain. We're more
214. 8:36interested in the front of the brain.
215. 8:39So what's the problem? Well, gatekeeping
216. 8:41mechanisms can be the problem. And a
217. 8:43gatekeeping mechanism can be a
218. 8:45standardized test. It can be an
219. 8:47obnoxious teacher. It can be negative
220. 8:50thinking within your own mind. It can be
221. 8:52the alphabet test in standardized
222. 8:54testing. It's some place that a person
223. 8:56gets stuck.
224. 8:58Of course, we have Dr. Theodore J.
225. 9:00Naysayer to help us with this process.
226. 9:03And he's one of those guys that does
227. 9:05this when he talks to you, which is the
228. 9:07international symbol of I am way better
229. 9:10than you are.
230. 9:14And I had a joke worked out with the
231. 9:16middle fingers, but my wife said, "Do
232. 9:18not do that joke at the TED Talk." So
233. 9:21I'm not, but you know where I'm going
234. 9:23with this.
235. 9:30I want to read you something that
236. 9:31happened to me. This is from a naysayer
237. 9:33that I dealt with. I wrote an article
238. 9:35and here's what they wrote back to me.
239. 9:37I recently reviewed a rejoinder that you
240. 9:39wrote for the Journal of Learning Dis-
241. 9:41Difficulties about twice exceptional
242. 9:43learners.
243. 9:45I found the article to be trite, lacking
244. 9:47in content, and generally missing any
245. 9:50points that approximate reality.
246. 9:53Love, Mom.
247. 9:58That made me sweat. Woo.
248. 10:03After a human being gets about 10,000
249. 10:05messages, they start incorporating the
250. 10:07negative things that are going on. Ask
251. 10:10yourselves, when would you start
252. 10:11believing it at 1,000 messages? 2,000?
253. 10:153,000? Try 10,000 by the time you're 12
254. 10:18years old.
255. 10:25I want to tell you about the National
256. 10:28Education Association. I'm sorry about
257. 10:30this hat.
258. 10:32I've got a bald head. They're like, "You
259. 10:33got to cover that head."
260. 10:35The lighting is going to make all the TV
261. 10:37stuff go crazy. But, don't pull it down
262. 10:38too far because then it's going to cover
263. 10:39your face and we'll have shadows. It's
264. 10:41like, "Good God."
265. 10:48Here's what those folks had to say about
266. 10:49twice exceptionality.
267. 10:51Looking at the big picture, twice
268. 10:53exceptional students are important to
269. 10:55the future of our communities. You're
270. 10:57the community.
271. 11:00Their unrealized potential can mean
272. 11:02immeasurable societal costs. I want you
273. 11:05to think for a second about what those
274. 11:07costs could be.
275. 11:09Inspiring community leaders who are
276. 11:11never elected. Half of you can really
277. 11:13relate to this right now.
278. 11:16Cures for the diseases that are never
279. 11:18discovered. Twice exceptional people are
280. 11:21wonderful medical researchers and
281. 11:23physicians.
282. 11:25Revolutionary inventions that are never
283. 11:27in patented. If you're an entrepreneur,
284. 11:30there's a good chance that you're a
285. 11:31twice exceptional person.
286. 11:34I want to tell you about Jimmy. When I
287. 11:36met this little guy, he was an
288. 11:378-year-old person and I knew I was in
289. 11:39the presence of greatness. But Jimmy
290. 11:41gave me the double headache. Right away,
291. 11:44it's like, "Oh man, I'm in trouble with
292. 11:45this guy."
293. 11:47His IQ tested at 158.
294. 11:49His math was 178. 100 is an average
295. 11:53score.
296. 11:54My students at Washington University
297. 11:56can't do the math that Jimmy was doing
298. 11:58as an 8-year-old person. He did it in
299. 12:00his head without writing anything down.
300. 12:03Now, Jimmy has some problems. He
301. 12:05struggles socially and he doesn't have a
302. 12:07lot of friends, but the thing is I want
303. 12:08to be his buddy cuz I'm going to be
304. 12:10working for him someday.
305. 12:14I want to tell you uh that he's as smart
306. 12:16as Albert Einstein, who was a twice
307. 12:18exceptional person.
308. 12:20I want to uh talk about John for a few
309. 12:22seconds. John was a top 1% guy.
310. 12:25Handsome person, health nut, was a
311. 12:28genius with electronics. But John had
312. 12:31two problems, severe depression and he
313. 12:34could not do the times tables, no matter
314. 12:36how he tried to learn them.
315. 12:38So, I said to him, "Well, John, you
316. 12:39know, how do you how do you do this?" He
317. 12:41goes, "Well, Dr. Jim, ask me a
318. 12:42question." I said, "Okay, buddy, 7 * 7."
319. 12:45He goes, "Okay, Fred goes to the store
320. 12:47to aisle seven. He walks halfway down,
321. 12:49he meets Sue. Sue is the multiplier. Sue
322. 12:51reaches into the seventh shelf and pulls
323. 12:53out a loaf of bread and on that bread is
324. 12:5549."
325. 12:58He taught himself to do that. No teacher
326. 13:00taught him. He did that for all the
327. 13:01number sets.
328. 13:05The story doesn't have a happy ending.
329. 13:08In his early 20s,
330. 13:10John took his own life.
331. 13:1320 years after the fact,
332. 13:15normally this really breaks me up, but
333. 13:1720 years after the fact, I still think
334. 13:20about him
335. 13:21and the lost potential.
336. 13:25It's my allergies, I'm sorry.
337. 13:28I can hear John's voice and come on Dr.
338. 13:30Jim, we got to bounce up. Let's get
339. 13:31going.
340. 13:32Well, here's Leonardo da Vinci.
341. 13:35You know, I'm a bald guy, as you know. I
342. 13:37think I could pull that hat off. What do
343. 13:39you think?
344. 13:42It could happen.
345. 13:44This is what a twice exceptional person
346. 13:46did with the last supper. It's Legos.
347. 13:48When you see Legos, I want you to be
348. 13:50thinking, "Ah, there may be a giftedness
349. 13:52around here."
350. 13:53What we need is fairness. I don't care
351. 13:56if you're a conservative, a moderate, or
352. 13:59a liberal. I don't care if you're young
353. 14:01or older like me. We all want fairness.
354. 14:04We're wired for fairness. So, what does
355. 14:06fairness mean? It means equal access to
356. 14:09participate in this society, not getting
357. 14:12stuck at a gatekeeping mechanism.
358. 14:14We're here to talk about bounce. So,
359. 14:17it's getting from here, bouncing over to
360. 14:20there, where you have equal access. I
361. 14:22want everyone, all of you human beings
362. 14:25here, to be able to come to the table.
363. 14:27The table should be filled with half
364. 14:29women, and you women should make the
365. 14:31same money as men. I'm just saying.
366. 14:34Yay.
367. 14:38Every type of person, including twice
368. 14:40exceptional people, need to come to the
369. 14:42table because America is great when
370. 14:45we're all participating.
371. 14:48Well, what are some of the things that
372. 14:50keep people from getting there? The
373. 14:51alphabet tests. You know what these are?
374. 14:54It's how you get into college. And I've
375. 14:56got a great idea for you alphabet test
376. 14:58humans.
377. 15:00Just let the test go for 12 hours. You
378. 15:03have your fast thinkers, and they'll get
379. 15:05it done in the normal time, and they'll
380. 15:06get their scores, and I want them to be
381. 15:08air traffic controllers. They're great
382. 15:10people.
383. 15:13But, what about the slow, methodical,
384. 15:15precise, twice exceptional people? They
385. 15:19will give us a measure of endurance that
386. 15:21is so important. We don't measure
387. 15:23endurance. It's the most important
388. 15:25thing.
389. 15:27Edison told us that genius is 99%
390. 15:31perspiration. Just use the roll-on and
391. 15:33you're all good with that, right?
392. 15:36When you hear this statement,
393. 15:39"If you're so smart, how come you can't
394. 15:42dot dot dot dot dot?"
395. 15:44That's when the light bulb should go on.
396. 15:46This could be a twice exceptional
397. 15:48person.
398. 15:49Okay, what can you do from these chairs
399. 15:52tonight?
400. 15:54I want you to validate strengths. Two
401. 15:57human beings in this room validated my
402. 15:59strengths and it's the only way that I
403. 16:01got a was able to do this TED Talk.
404. 16:04Validating strengths is the number one
405. 16:06thing that you can do.
406. 16:08I want you to think about something,
407. 16:09human beings. No matter how big your
408. 16:12issues are, no matter what the
409. 16:14gatekeeping systems are, no matter how
410. 16:16bad the naysayers are, no matter what
411. 16:18the basic skills problems are, we're not
412. 16:20going to have to bounce past the
413. 16:22gatekeeping mechanisms if the gates are
414. 16:24open in the first place. So, I want you
415. 16:26to do this real quickly with me cuz I'm
416. 16:28long on time. Go like this. Close
417. 16:31gatekeeping systems. We can visualize
418. 16:35and together open the gate so that
419. 16:37everyone has equal access. Let's do it.
420. 16:39Let's open the gates.
421. 16:43Thank you. You've been wonderful.