summary

This was a speech delievered to Toastmasters 

Divergent Freaks. 

I was a tree climbing, doll hating, woods walking, fort building, kind of  girl

When I went to school my weirdness kicked in about 2nd grade- The nun asked me to spell RED— and I did… Red, read, wread Shortly after that incident, I hid in the locker room during recess instead of going out to play. I was a skinny thing And the bigger girls would taunt and tease me so i’d duck into a cubicle until recess was over and pretend to be the first one in the door. 

At 12, I remember standing the yellow step of St Christopher's church when, my mother while talking to a priest said  Yes we think she ought to go camping,  yes, She seems to be a little bit retarded. 

At 16 my parents who owned a hairdressing shop gave my school-age friend Janet and me, the same job to sweep up the hair and wash brushes for our 30 operators It was a simple job and there was plenty to do. 

 The first day on the job we were standing by the double sink in the back and, I asked Janet what they were paying her. She said 1.88 an hour. That was decent money back then. However, my parents told me they would pay me $0.88 an hour which meant.  That meant I was worth less than half of what Janet she was worth. Something inside me snapped. I left the sink went into back Lounge, picked up a magazine and read for the rest of the afternoon. I couldn't explain what was wrong.

 My parents told me that night   Well we thought because you are our daughter,  and we own the business, you get everything anyway. It just keeps the money in the family. Janet’s family needs the money but you don’t. We pay for everything for you anyway.  But  It told me… I wasn’t worth it.  You said you are “less than” 

Fast forward to college where the professor gave me an A on an exam scolded me for not trying hard during his class but said my exam was one of the most insightful he had read for literary conventions and had few misspellings.

Now there is a difference between someone who makes a mistake and someone who  IS a mistake. People who are flawed are like broken toys, they will never be competent and they can’t be fixed. 

Weird people actually have a different brainw Style. They are wired in a differently  If you take all the varieties of different kinds of brain wiring, it's about 20 percent of the population  These talented children do not learn best by stilling still and looking at the printed text.  They learn by doing stuff. Whether a kid is ADHD, Dyslexic or has a nonverbal learning disability,  they are like broken toys in the current educational system. 

It has only been in the 20th century that reading became the primary way to learn: Dyslexics learn by doing. They learn when there a real-life problem to solve. They are talkative, observant,   insatiably curious, and persistent. They think visually, have high levels of critical thinking. see patterns in large about of data. Divergent Thinkers can approach a complex challenge  in a  way that most people will never think of 

 This is NOT a disaster…..If a child finds it hard to do something =they develop persistence.

 If they can ‘t compete in the ordinary way, they get resourceful  If they don’t fit in, they’ll come self-reliant. You can’t convince a person who can’t succeed in the standard system to obey the rules.  In order to survive, they must become immune to peer pressure and normal standards for achievement.  They like spending time by themselves. Often they ignore social conventions this ignoring is 50 percent innocence and 50 percen forget YOU !  Their ability to develop skills is rooted heir need to do things differently.  

Every group, every company needs those divergent thinkers.  The list of famous people with divergent learning styles will knock your socks off.

Here are some

Albert Eistein

Richard Branson

Steve Jobs

Henry Winkler, Actor

Steven Spielberg, Director

 Whoopi Goldberg

. Cher

. Salma Hayek

. Keira Knightley 

. Jay Leno

Tommy Hilfiger

. Steve Jobs

. Erin Brockovich

. Muhammad Ali