I thought that I would share this as it made me think and maybe it will make you think too. The message was posted on a blog by Dave Trott and mentions a speech by Sir Ken Robinson called 'Is Education Killing Creativity'. The most touching part comes at the end.
He talks about a little girl who was very disruptive at school. In class she was always chattering, moving about, fidgeting. She’d had to move school several times because of this problem. One day her mother was at her wit’s end when the headmaster called her in.
She
sat with her daughter in his office waiting for the inevitable litany
of reasons why he couldn’t have his daughter at his school. Waiting for
him to suggest medical treatment: drugs that would calm her down and
make her behave. But this headmaster didn’t do any of that.
He said to the girl, “Your mother and I are just popping outside for a chat. We won’t be long.”
Then
he got up to leave, but he turned the radio on before he did. Outside
the room he said to the mother, “Just watch this for a moment.” And
they looked through a little window at the girl. At first she sat
there, listening to the music on the radio.
Then she started tapping
her feet, Then she stood up and began moving, swaying to and fro. Then
she began moving rhythmically all around the room.
The headmaster turned to her mother and said, “Look, you haven’t got an unruly child, you’ve got a dancer. She needs a school that caters for her talent.” And that’s what happened. The mother put the little girl in dance school. For the first time in her life, she was with children like her, and she fitted in. First she became a ballet dancer, then eventually a famous choreographer.
And now she is worth millions, and arranges all Andrew Lloyd Webber’s productions. All because one headmaster saw an opportunity where everyone else only saw a problem. Because he wasn’t trying to make her fit the norm. He wanted to celebrate what made her different.
Her creativity was disruptive and sometimes awkward (not normal) but this was the thing that made her special. All it needed was for someone to see it.
Maybe, we all need to look harder for talent and passion rather than educational acceptance.
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