If
someone asked you if you were a genius what would you say? What would I say? First you’d probably laugh and then say that
you weren’t. Same goes for me. Genius, legitimately calling someone that, is
something we shy away from unless most others also say it is so. That is sad.
I’m reading a book right now called Wishcraft and it is sad. It is sad cause its definition is spot on and
so simple and qualifies so many. Who are
some of the earliest geniuses that we all know?
Children.
They come out of the womb knowing nothing, except how to eat
and breath and sleep with nobody’s help.
Nobody teaches them anything.
They learn on their own. They
learn how to walk all by themselves although nobody sits there and says to
them, “hey brock first you strengthen your legs so you can stand. Then you lean forward and lift one leg and
move it slightly forward all the while without losing your balance. Etc…” Pretty amazing. The author of this book then describes how
kids are so excited that they just re-invent the English language for
themselves to describe everything and yet we are the ones that are audacious
enough to say that we have no idea what they’re saying or that they just saying
craziness/gibberish. I know I’ve said
that. Pretty sad that I’ve used my own
bad behavior indoctrination of shaming and belittling genius on accident and
without even realizing I’d been doing it.
As I continue reading this book the author talks about, and
I knew where she was going before she even went there (cause I’m a genius J ), but she asked where
our genius went. She says that the
‘precious right to make choices based on your own wishes began to be taken away
as soon as you were old enough to control yourself and sit still in school’. She says that schools are not designed to
learn from you; they are designed to teach you.
Screw the fact that at age 5 or 6 you are an artist, fort builder, model
builder, train wizard, real estate junkie, plant-a-holic, dinosaur guru, dirt
bike dude, stay at home wanna be a mom and play house, video game master,
reader of all books of the universe librarian live in or whatever floated your
boat back then. Ugh…school…it bugs. It squashes the genius inner child in all of
us and it is done on purpose. Check this
quote out. It’s from a Rockefeller who,
along with other rich people, put more funding into the department of education
in its formative/beginning years than did the government, which the government
shouldn’t even be involved in the first place, but whatever.
Hmm…as I’m writing this post I’m thinking about how my wife
and I aren’t going to teach our kids about santa claus. Yes its true and so if you don’t want to ruin
your kids upbringing as far as this tradition goes and what not by having your
kids hanging with mine this is your fair warning to plan ahead as we don’t have
kids just yet. The reason I bring up
santa is because we’re taught to believe in this fictious thing that doesn’t
exist and if we go along the ride and façade and play by the rules we’ll be
rewarded with presents. Same goes with
schooling.
We’re born with this inner genius and once we enter the
school system with that genius we find out that the genius doesn’t mean jack
squat, but instead that learning times tables or trigonometry or 1720’s
American Indian tribal history/patterns or whatever else the freak you waste
your 15-20 years studying is what is rewarded.
Oh you like dinosaurs, well that doesn’t apply here and so we’re
learning about times tables. I always
remember thinking back to when I was a kid of 8 to early teen years, seriously,
that when I was a kid I thought, why can’t I just go to work now? I know simple math and grammar/English. Do I need to know how that a proton weighs
more than an electron or do I need to know about photosynthesis and plants when
that doesn’t mean a dang thing to me or interests me at all? Do I need to memorize and write out the
periodic table if I’m granting lines of credit to customers to ship freight
around the country cause that is what I do now?
No I don’t. School in the
traditional sense of the word bugs me.
It is constricting, crushing, small, inefficient, annoying, loud,
political, uninspiring, and lame. Oooo
imagine if I had written that on my 2nd grade English test. My teacher would’ve flipped out.
So why am I writing all this? Mainly to just vent. Also to tell the world I’m going to home
school my kids. I’m not going to teach
them about santa. I’m not going to tell
them they look cute in the princess costume.
I’m not going to tell them they need to learn anything that isn’t gospel
related. I will teach my kids the
gospel. They will teach themselves the
rest and my wife and I will be guides for the rest of what interests them. President Henry B Eyring spoke of this in the
priesthood session of the latest general conference when he said, “I have
discovered a good test for identifying activities with the potential to make a
great difference in a young person’s life.
It is that they suggest the activity out of an interest they feel has
come to them as a gift from God.”
I’m just tired of thinking of myself when I read books like
this one or videos like this one (insert ‘your indoctrination’). I hate thinking that I’m going to perpetuate
onto my kids the same crap Mr. Rockefeller and his cronies foisted on me and my
family and countless others in this country.
Blind acceptance of the facts of life and what they deemed important as
they saw fit. I prefer to think of
teaching the kids this way (insert article of family living in trailer
traveling the country).
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