We’ll help them find their unique gifts to share with the world.
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ~ Albert Einstein
These were the words of Albert Einstein. He personally experienced learning challenges. He started school with learning disabilities; in fact, his early teachers thought he was stupid. This quote reminded me of a story by George Reavis about using your strengths. A mentor shared it with me back in the 1980s, and it inspired this practice!
The Animal School
Once upon a time, the animals decided that they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the world, so they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying. All of the animals were required to take all of the subjects.
The duck was excellent at swimming – in fact, he was better than his instructor. However, he made only passing marks in flying and was very poor at running. Since he was so slow in running, he had to drop his swimming class and do extra running. This caused his webbed feet to become badly worn, meaning that he dropped to an average mark in swimming. Fortunately, “average” was acceptable, therefore, nobody worried about it–except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he struggled in flying class because his teacher insisted that he start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He developed cramps from overexertion, so he ended up with ‘C’ in climbing and a ‘D’ in running.
The eagle was a real problem student and was severely disciplined for being disobedient. In climbing class, he beat all of the others to the top, but insisted on using his own way of getting 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 valedictorian of his class.
Does this Fable have a Moral?
The lesson here is that our children each have their own strengths. As their parents and professionals, we need to join together to advocate for them. We need to utilize various multisensory methods of instruction to develop their strengths, not handicap their potential by making them learn in one standard way.
We can help find the genius in your child. We will identify the cause of their challenges and then build their foundational skills in a way that works for them for the long term – in fact, for life! It is our goal to help your children overcome their challenges, develop their islands of excellence and enable them to share their unique gifts with the world!
Give us 4 months and we’ll give you a different child! Call us at 858-509-1131 or contact us via our form.