Tuesday 26 January 2016

Normal? No exceptional!



How often have we over heard a frustrated parent respond to the antics of a child "I just wish you'd act normally, do you see anyone else here acting that way?"

Is normal really what we want for our children and grandchildren?

The definition of normal is conforming to the standard, typical or expected.  In essence them when we say to our children could you just be normal were saying to them it would you please conform to the standard norms or I want you to be typical I want to be able to expect your behaviors – Do not stand out!

This definition of normal brings to mind the novel A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle where in Camazotz every house is the same and every child bounces their ball in rhythm to the next - there is no deviation all is ‘normal’ and to deviate from the norm requires reprogramming.

Normal? No I want exceptional!

Think of the great inventors, musicians, scientists, politicians, writers none of them were normal no they were exceptional.  They were encouraged to achieve their full potential, to standout, to dream and then reach for their dreams.  They did not fit in.

Albert Einstein had Asperger’s Syndrome, Stephen Hawking ALS, Isaac Newton epilepsy, Thomas Edison a learning disability, John Forbes Nash Jr. Schizophrenia, John Milton blindness, Ludwig van Beethoven deafness and the list goes on.

I don’t want my children and grandchildren to be normal - I want them to be all that they can be, as original, imaginative and unconventional as their abilities will allow so that they can influence their world instead of conforming to it.

I want them to bounce their balls to their own rhythm to the music of their soul not the average expectations of society.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2016 twosnydergirls

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