What Keeps Me Awake at Night

As parents we have many responsibilities, but there are some that just keep me awake at night. As a mother I believe it is part of my responsibility to find my children’s genius, balance it with their currency, at the same time be careful about not labeling them anything, just in case I get it wrong, they change their mind, or they decide to expand their horizons. For my daughter, her genius and her currency were related. She loved to dance and would behave appropriately in exchange for lessons. But my son has such imagination, such vision, that it is difficult to focus on one thing and he is always so well behaved that it is hard to find anything that motivates him to excel. It is difficult not to label him the good child. Which would ultimately hurt both children. I want him to be good because it will make him happy not because it will make me happy. When I tell my daughter she’s being feisty she says to me, “It’s the feisty ones you don’t worry about.” and sadly enough it is kind of true. The whole thing reminds me of a story by Dr. G.H. Reavis:
The Video Link:  The Animal School

The Animal School by Dr. G.H. Reavis

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something to meet the problems of the new world. So they organized a school.
They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.
The Duck was excellent in swimming, in fact, better than his instructor; but he made only passing grades in flying and was very slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his web feet were so badly worn that he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class, here, his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He also developed “Charlie horses”’ from over exertion and then got a C in climbing and a D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb, and fly a little had the highest average and was the Valedictorian.
The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their child to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.