Some kids will always win the foot races at recess; some kids will be able to dangle from the bars on the playground, criss-crossing, frontwards, backwards, sideways, upside down and right side up.
Some kids will always have a neat desk, keep their papers in a straight stack and have clean and even fingernails.
Some kids will keep their focus on the teacher, on the task at hand and follow the directions to a T; some kids will never push limits or question authority.
Some kids will do these things, but some won't.
Some kids will never run out of questions; some kids will create, design, formulate, doodle and sketch; some kids will daydream, fail to focus on the lesson and almost never follow all the directions, making up their own directions as they go.
Some kids will have a single focus; some kids will have ever-changing obsessions; some kids will have a handful of enduring passions.
Some kids will frustrate, perplex and even irritate their teachers in their individuality, their strong-willed determination to refuse to march to the beat of the masses.
Some kids will not always be understood by teachers and peers; some kids will always be swimming against the current trying to satisfy their curiosity and sense of adventure and their need to fit in and make it through life.
These kids will be game changers; these kids will strive to improve, cure, alter, overhaul, present us with new frontiers, entertain us in new ways and make us ask more questions and seek further than before and their ideas won't ever stop...unless our conforming society squashes the life out of these young inventors and innovators before they have a chance.
To all the teachers who might not see things in this light, I would ask you to be patient; all the basic, rote learning will come with time; for some kids the order of the letters in the alphabet is not important {and it really isn't if you think about it}; let your curiosity be peaked, you just might be witnessing the development of the next Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie, Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga or William Shakespeare; and forgive them if their lack of focus in the classroom and their penchant for making up their own rules when it comes to assignments and projects. They are just being true to themselves. Be Patient.
This is something I often have to remind myself of when I find interesting contraptions taped to my walls, come across strange mixtures frozen in cups in my freezer and must continually come up with places to store bits of this and that, screws and parts from machines and circuits and batteries that will eventually be a part of a small robot being imagined, designed and built by my Darlings and discover my dining table and the surrounding floor covered in paper, stickers, pens, pencils, markers, glitter glue and pencil sharpener shavings after a book writing and illustrating blitz. Be Patient.
And when I'm in a hurry and already experiencing sensory overload and they are full of queries with answers that require deep thought, advanced degrees, a few Google sessions and some honest "I just don't know, honey" answers; when they make tremendous observations and musings; and they aren't focused on the task at hand which happens to be jumping in and out of the car, running in and out of stores and staying on task! Be Patient.
Be Patient. Over and out...
Anna
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