“Point your kids in the right direction; when they’re old
they won’t be lost." ~ Proverbs 22:6
Tommy’s education started
unremarkably, like many other children of his time. He attended school when his family’s work
load permitted. But his mind often
wandered. Having lost patience with the
child one day, the teacher called the boy a dull learner in front of the class.
Angry and humiliated, Tommy told his mother. When Nancy
went to the schoolhouse to confront the teacher, a heated argument ensued after
the teacher doubled down. “Tommy is
simply not teachable,” she insisted.
So at age 12, his public school career ended abruptly. But that was far from the end of the story.
Nancy had been a school teacher in Canada and happily took
over the job of educating her son. She
knew her son had quite a bit of capability from the things he was doing around
the house.
Nancy encouraged her son to have both a head and hands
approach to learning, allowing him to experiment in his own laboratory. She even overcame her husband’s protests
after various small explosions and odd smells erupted from their small basement.
•
Don’t be afraid to fail. Keep
trying; learn from your mistakes.
• Read
the entire span of literature, not just what you like.
• Not
all learning comes from books; it’s important to work with your hands and learn
from life.
• Never
stop learning, always keep improving yourself.
Tommy was imaginative and inquisitive, but because much
instruction was by rote and he had difficulty hearing, he was bored and therefore
branded a misfit. And additionally, by
today’s standards, he would’ve been classified as dyslexic.
In later years, a mature and very successful Thomas Edison acknowledged
that his mother’s discipline for a focused life was responsible for his great
success. He obviously learned
differently from the standard recitation learning of his traditional one-room
schoolhouse.
It was fundamentally necessary for Edison to have a visceral
feel for the information he was learning, especially for a need to experiment
and react to the results of those experiments. Throughout his life Edison developed a love
for literature and could quote many great poems and passages.
Can you imagine what life would be like without light bulbs
or electric motors; phonographs and motion picture projectors? Perhaps the world’s most prolific inventor,
Edison acquired a record number of 1,093 patents!
But none of that would have happened had it not been for a
devoted mother who refused to believe his teacher’s assessment. Always remember, your defiant or befuddled
twelve year-old might have a spark inside of them that just needs to be lit by
someone who believes in them. Who better
to light the fire than YOU?
Lord, thank You for the honor of being a
parent. Give me patience and a joyful
heart with the everyday innocent and not-so-innocent failings of my
children. Help me encourage them to be
all that You meant them to become. Amen
