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A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

© William Robb

For those not familiar with the slogans of the sixties, this was one which was prevalent in my country during that decade. Essentially it pointed out that it was a person's mind, not something else, which determined his worth. Its underlying message was that if you allow artificial barriers to prevent the development of one's mind then you may be preventing the emergence of another person who may be of the same caliber as say an Alexander the Great, a Michael Angelo, a Louis Pasteur, a Madame Curie, a Vincent VanGogh, an Albert Einstein, a Werner Von Braun, or a Pablo Picasso. What would the world have been like if these great people had not been allowed to compete with others? What would the world be like if these great people had not been allowed to develop their talents because of some perceived artificial barrier?

What does the above have to do with disability? Everything, because it appears that the disabled on an international level may be facing artificial barriers which may prevent them from being able to compete. Unfortunately some of these barriers may originate in the school years. During these years the disabled may discover that they are being classified according to their disability, not according to their potential. Labeling which occurs in school should only serve to help these individuals overcome their limitations. It should not be allowed to function as an artificial barrier which may prevent them from being able to successfully compete.

If labels were not allowed to act as artificial barriers, then possibly the world would not now have a disabled population which may now be approaching 3/4 of a billion. If all holds true, as it is for my country, then only 30% of these - 225,000,000 - are actively engaged is some type of productive enterprise. The remaining 70%, 525,000.000,are most probably having to rely upon some type of government assistance. Just think - over half a billion people world wide may be forced to depend upon government handouts because of artificial barriers to employment like labels.

In all probability only 10% of the above are so severely handicapped that they can't be taught, trained or retrained to do something which would help their country's economy. 10% of 525,000,000 equals 52,500,000 severely disabled people worldwide Subtract this from 525,000,000 and you get 472.000.000. This is the possible pool of new employees who would be available for employment, world wide, if all artificial barriers to were removed. The use of labeling to determine one's worth, employability, or their intelligence is only one artificial barrier that must be torn down if the world's disabled