Time for the misfits to rise!

It is truly a unique time in history for us. I am different, I was always different. I could never fit in and when I tried, something inside me died.

Each child is so unique in their giftings and talents. Children are born creative geniuses and if you want to learn more about that, please read this study conducted for NASA about this very topic.

Many scientists have endeavored to foray bravely into this ambiguous subject of creativity and genius. Tests were designed, comparative studies, longitudinal research and much debate has occurred about this very important topic.

We know that when a baby is born, they do not have to be taught how to breathe, how to eat or how to cry. Communication skills develop within the womb of a mother. Emotions are a natural subset of a child's physiology. Curiosity is innate and once ignited, it can only be satisfied through exploration and understanding. Learning is a natural process for children and we should honour this process through constant engagement of their curiosities.

In fact, many of our modern geniuses, were not educated in a traditional school system. Albert Einstein, commonly associated with genius, actually dropped out of an elite private academy at the time to pursue his true purpose in physics and the sciences. He was also on the spectrum.

His father wanted him to study electrical engineering, but he was a fractious pupil who found the Gymnasium's regimen and teaching methods far from congenial. He later wrote that the school's policy of strict rote learning was harmful to creativity.

Steve Jobs also had a really hard time at traditional schools:

Jobs had difficulty functioning in a traditional classroom, tended to resist authority figures, frequently misbehaved, and was suspended a few times. Clara had taught him to read as a toddler, and Jobs stated that he was "pretty bored in school and [had] turned into a little terror... you should have seen us in the third grade, we basically destroyed the teacher".

In a raw and really revealing interview, Elon Musk, talked about growing up with Asperger's and how his life was complicated by this. However, he is living proof and dare I say, hope to all parents of children diagnosed with ASD or giftedness that there is space in this world for our little ones and that they, too, can become billionaires, creative thinkers and geniuses in their own rite?

If we examine closely, the ubiquitous nature of true talent and genius, we will also discover that most of these individuals struggled with one exception or another. Here is a short list of people you may know that were "different": Tim Burton, Charles Darwin, Michelangelo, Sir Isaac Newton, Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Carl Jung. Do you notice a trend?

How can we even place these children on the spectrum and those who are gifted in a bracket of learners that necessities a label of "disability". All these amazing inventors, scientists, artists, musicians, and renowned historical figures were different. They were imaginative, creative, courageous, unique and divergent thinkers. They were all neurodiverse which means atypical! They were all gifted with a superpower that manifested in the form of greatness and eternal fame.

Our children are meant for greatness. Boundless, limitless, endless impact is written in their future. Their creative genius is an irreplaceable and the most powerful asset that we must harness and cultivate. Children are born with the incredible gift of seeing no limits and they are not jaded by realism as we envision it. Their power resides in their minds and the more of a "misfit" they are, the more potential they have to innovate a new way of thinking, living, operating, of being!

So why are we forcing our children to fit in when they were designed to be set apart?

We are consumed by the metric of comparables. Our generation is laden with unwarranted guilt regarding parenthood. We are told early and often that we need to nurse our children, vaccinate them, check their milestones, and feed them healthy food. We are instructed on how to be parents by others and we seldom have time to breathe and let it all sink in. There are a plethora of books written about how to be a good parent, articles litter the internet with an abundance of information and to do lists. We are not thinking for ourselves. We have relinquished all sense of control of raising our own children to the systems and data already in place. In fear of screwing our kids up or ruining their futures, we are hypnotically compelled to follow the same script as everyone else.

We place them in daycare, in school then pray they will go to college/university one day. We invest thousands of dollars in after-school programs, arts, sports, recreational activities then a few more thousand dollars in meds or therapies because their mental health is suffering for one reason or another. We are perpetually seeking means and methods to empower our children so they can grow up to be successful and exceed us. School is the only thing we know. It is the only place where a child must attend to be educated and compete with fellow peers in later years, correct? WRONG.

The pandemic allowed most of us to take a front seat and witness our children's education first hand. Personally, I was appalled at the lack of synchronicity, individualization and attention given to children's amazing genius. Rules, timelines, disengaged oration and flavorless lectures. These teachers were scared at the time, and rightfully so but they are also forced to teach this curriculum. Designed by business men and politicians with an agenda to manufacture the same type of citizen for the future good of the country. No free thought, no discussions, no questions, no discourse or dialogue. Just a lesson, an activity and move on to the next topic.

I would like to note that my children's teachers were excellent. They did the best they could under the circumstances, I am not criticizing them at all. In fact, I have hundreds of teacher friends and I know how darn hard Covid and virtual teaching was for you, I commend you on keeping up and trying your best. The criticism here does not rest with the educators, it is truly intended for the system itself. Teachers WANT to engage our children. They WANT to play with our children and learn with them through exploration but there is simply no time for that in a traditional school. Between the curriculum expectations, the required activities, the grading, the testing, the observation, the behaviour management, the sheer numbers of students per class, and the administration of school forms and keeping children safe (from each other, ha ha)- it is merely impossible to have an engaged, individualized approach.

Classrooms are filled to the brim and the system is short staffed. Added to this the revolving trends in education to teach one agenda over another with the everchanging approaches of whole language theory versus phonics, foundational versus core mathematics instruction and your odds of these teachers being able to access their own creative genius is far less than winning the lottery!

I know you are struggling teachers and I am going to write a blog just for you! But for now let's get back to creative genius and how we should all be proud misfits.

This was on Stats Can website and accordingly, many schools shut down. Interestingly enough, more students than ever dropped out of traditional schools and started to explore alternative learning such as forest schools, homeschooling, and different learning philosophies after the pandemic.

Ahem, enter my academy developed in 2021 - Agora Prep Academy. I have been an educator for two decades and I completed a program at Harvard University called "Leaders of Learning". I realized that education was done differently in other parts of the world and that there is an urgent need to implement free-range, inquiry-based, engaged learning here in Canada. Schools like Agora in the Netherlands, Waldorf and Montessori schools have also seen a spike in enrollment as well as many other amazing movements happening across the globe including Europe, South Africa, International Education, and Canada.

So what's next for the misfits?

GREATNESS. World Domination. Breaking the barriers of limitations and exceeding our wildest imagination. A future filled with colourful and rich talent. Solutions and innovations designed by creative geniuses. Possibilities, endless empowerment of glorious ideas and immeasurable transformation.

But it all starts with one shift, if you are willing to take the challenge... Education does not have to be 9-3, Monday to Friday, from a book taught by a teacher. Unlearn this and abscond your ideological chains of obscure and unnecessary schooling to explore the rich and abundant offerings of an alternative learning environment tailored for your child and their diverse needs.

If you would like more information on alternative education in Canada, feel free to contact RefoundEd CEO, Jeannette Eastin. She founded an organization of pioneering, brave educators who are blazing trails in the educational industry and flipping the paradigm on its head everywhere!

This is an urgent call for all you parents who feel like they never "fit in" at school and you desire a better learning journey for your children who should proudly declare they too, are different and unlike anyone else.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ~Dr. Seuss

Also this from the Bible:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Psalm 139: 13-14

Our children are born perfect. With all their challenges, uniqueness, imperfections, struggles and quirkiness. They always strive to please and they are ever so impressionable. Childhood is extremely brief and innocence is golden. We need to honour them, cherish them and provide them with the best possible opportunity to become who they are truly meant to be.

We need to inspire future leaders and equip them with the skills they need to conquer and smash the opportunities lying before them. We need to flood them with confidence, immerse them in unconditional acceptance and love, then we need to respond to their curiosities with instruction on how to do proper research. Once they discover the answers to their questions, we must then ask them to teach their peers this new knowledge. Only then will it be truly embedded, understood and retained.

I declare an end to fear and embarrassment that our children are misfits. I renounce the need to call them "special" or "accommodated". They are all DIFFERENTIATED learners in their own rite and they should be treated with the honour and respect EVERY HUMAN deserves. Let's break the barrier of exclusion and enter a new age of education.

SB