A wave of news articles recently focused on how high school education is centered on SAT test performance versus true education. How any questioning of what is deemed as the answer is discouraged…even penalized!
The current issue of Newsweek magazine (9/17/2007 Issue) is running a story titled “You and Your Quirky Kid” that focuses on how parents, educators and society-at-large is dealing with kids who “break ranks and begin marching to their own tunes.”
The article states…”Unconventional behavior may not sound like a big deal, but how do you determine the difference between a nonconformist and a child with more serious issues that may need to be addressed?”
The article goes on to showcase the 80s and 90s surge in ADHD assessment and treatment and diagnoses of “sensory-integration dysfunction,” “dyspraxia” and “pervasive development disorder.”
Really?
Perhaps the most pervasive development disorder is the recent fixation on controlling anyone who may stray outside the boundries of what is defined as “normal.”
Think about the destiny of these individuals each with their tics, quirks and eccentricities… Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Chad Hurley and Stephen Chen (YouTube), Larry Elliston (Oracle), Richard Branson (Virgin Enterprises), Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Woody Allen, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln… all are school drop-outs and a couple even were assessed as mentally handicapped!
I was once assessed as having an IQ below 75 because my answers did not fit in with the “bell curve” of response!
Whether it is global warming, war, poverty, energy, education…or the next wave of Podcast entertainment…the mother who is quoted below in the Newsweek article might be the mother of the next great university president, entrepreneur or corporate CEO…
“My son is a whole person, the sum of all his average, stellar and quirky parts. And I can’t wait to see who he becomes, this boy in the bright yellow canary suit, who insists on dancing to his own tune!”
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