Thomas B. Crosthwaite, click
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Blogs by Thomas B. Crosthwaite
Saving Brain Damage Children 3/24/2008 11:50:17 AM
They Can Become Productive And Law Abiding Members Of Society. Some of you might know me pretty well by now. I was born three months ahead of time, and was a blue baby due to a lack of oxygen, resulting in brain damage. Brain damage affects people in many ways. It affected my speech, motor coordination,short term memory, [my long term memory seem to be phenomenual], and my ability to concentrate.
My mother taught me to be kind to animals, but otherwise my childhood behavior wasn't that great either.
I remember her telling me that a man that attended the same church that we did, had a boy that was in the reform school. The reason that she gave that he fell out of a tree. In the 1940s I don't guess that many people worried about things like that.
Of course, as a child, I didn't quite understand that brain damage was a factor in him being in the reform school.
I didn't grow up in the best environment. I was raised in a poor part of southren Tennessee and the small rural high school that I attended wasn't even fully accreded at that time.
Still, I would not change a thing in my life. I made it.
It has long been debated which were the more important genes or environment. When people have bad genes, mental illiness or brain damage we have to depend on envirment to save them. I believe that admiration for teachers and other professional people helps.
Also, normal people can be brought down by an bad environment If Unxle Jim was a child molester or a wife beater, you might grow up thinking that these things weren't so bad too. In some cases the mistreatment of momen might even have religious overtones. {If Eve hadn't eaten the forbidden fruit, we might not be in this mess].
I hope that I have helped you to see that brain damage isn't the end of the world.
