Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2003. Mattie was nine months old and at that point LOVING his exercise saucer. If Mattie wasn't in my arms or in the baby back pack, then he was in this saucer. Mattie loved the independence the saucer gave him and literally he would jump up and down so hard in this thing, I thought he was going to take off like a plane. A friend of mine sent this saucer to us as a gift. Probably when Mattie was 3 months old. When Mattie first tried the saucer, he was scared to death of it. But over time, he conquered those fears and loved playing it!
Quote of the day: Genie showed that lexicon seemed to have no age limit. But grammar, forming words into sentences, proved beyond her, bolstering the view that beyond a certain age, it is simply too late. The window seems to close. ~ Susan Curtiss, a UCLA linguistics professor
When I was getting my degree in counseling, I will never forget the first time I saw the documentary on Genie, the wild child. Genie was 13 years old in the 1970's, and was abused and tortured by her father since a baby. When Genie was found, she couldn't walk, talk, toilet herself, and the list went on. Genie's story was heartbreaking, and reading the story of the Turpin children made me reflect on the case of Genie.
I included an article about Genie and the incredible 60 minute video entitled, Genie: Secrets of the Wild Child. I saw this video in graduate school, and I found it SO PROFOUND that I bought it, showed it to Peter, and when I became a professor, I incorporated it into my lectures. I am not sure what was worse.... the fact that Genie was tortured as a child, or that she was discovered by researchers at UCLA, enrolled into funded linguistic trials and got all sorts of attention, but when progress wasn't being made (as Genie was never able to learn grammar and speak in sentences) and funding was being pulled, the interest in Genie vanished. In a way Genie was abandoned and continues to live in the California State system. I am not doing the story its full justice, which is why I included the links below. I think the scientific community learned from Genie's case that guidelines and safeguards for human subjects HAD TO BE put in place for ALL future studies. A study like the one Genie participated in would NEVER be allowed to take place today.
This is what Jay Shurley (a psychiatrist) had to say about Genie: "She was this isolated person, incarcerated for all those years, and she emerged and lived in a more reasonable world for a while, and responded to this world, and then the door was shut and she withdrew again and her soul was sick.”
How does this happen? In Genie's case, it all started with an unstable father, Clark Wiley. He grew up in the foster care system himself. He was a controlling man who hated noise, and he did not want children. Yet children came. The first, a baby girl, who died after being left in a cold garage. A second child died from birth complications. A third, a boy named John, survived, followed five years later by Genie.
When a drunk driver killed Wiley’s mother in 1958, he unraveled into anger and paranoia. He brutalized John and locked his 20-month-old daughter alone in a small bedroom, isolated and barely able to move. When not harnessed to a potty seat, she was constrained in a type of straitjacket and wire mesh-covered crib. Wiley imposed silence with his fists and a piece of wood. That is how Genie passed the 1960's.
Unfortunately none of this turns out well. Genie lives in the adult care institution in California, and John died. John had a daughter, Pamela, who grew up with a drug problem and was charged with endangering her own two daughters. Pamela also died. My point to this is such profound dysfunction and abuse, doesn't end with one generation. Instead, with the case of Genie, we are talking about four generations impacted by this terror.
The story of Genie is absolutely haunting and to me and the story of her life is worth telling. There should be a moral message from Genie. We shouldn't want to sweep up this gruesome picture up and make it go away. Of course as a mom who lost a child to cancer, I can not relate to these deranged parents on any level. I am sorry if they had a tough childhood, underwent atrocities of their own.... HOWEVER........this is NOT an excuse or gives them a free pass to abuse their own children. May we all learn from Genie.
Children found shackled and malnourished in Southern California home; parents arrested:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-perris-children-shackled-20180115-story.html
Starved, tortured, forgotten: Genie, the feral child who left a mark on researchers:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/14/genie-feral-child-los-angeles-researchers
Genie: Secrets of the Wild Child (60 minute long video):
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/genie-secret-wild-child/
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