The video above seems completely unremarkable at first - man walks down a corridor, navigating his way around easily visible and conspicuous obstacles. But it's far from an easy task; in fact, it should be nigh-impossible. The man, known only as TN, is totally blind. His inability to see stems from a failure in his brain rather than his eyes. Those work normally, but his visual cortex - the part of the brain that processes visual information - is inactive. As a result, TN is completely unaware of the ability to see and in his everyday life, he behaves like a blind person, using a stick to find his way around. Nevertheless, he can clearly make his way through a gauntlet of obstacles without making a single mistake.
Link here to access the video and discussion from the TED site.
Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University, believes that schools that veer away from giving children the grades they have earned, even when it's a zero or an "F," aren't doing anyone any good.
"Children aren't going to gain from ambiguous information regarding their grades," said Kazdin.
"The fact is children are failing yet we don't want to call it that," said Kazdin. "It's this whole notion that everyone's a winner and everyone gets a trophy."
Kazdin argues that children are perceptive enough that they will eventually realize they aren't doing well in school whether teachers give them "F"s or not, and that hiding their true level of achievement will only confuse them further.
"The task is to change the reality, not the labeling of it," he said.
