A close friend shared this video a short while ago.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSVYvUHg4UA&w=560&h=315]

The video triggered a few questions within me. I would like to leave them with you.

(If I offend you, I apologize in advance. My words are driven by the pain of having to witness the untapped, unrealized and unseen potential of the hundreds and thousands of youngsters that God has put me in touch with in the past twenty- five years. My purpose is not to disrespect  you in any way. I am certain that you are desirous of doing the best you can for your child. My purpose is only to show you something you might have missed seeing. A young life deserves as big a sky as we can possibly give him, doesn’t he?)

At 1.22 Angad Daryani says that he is a home schooler because he found the academic environment stifling his curiosity and imagination. Many among the audience stand up and clap enthusiastically. How many of them, how many of us, how many of YOU, would be willing to let your child quit school because your child finds school restrictive and dull?

Would you let your child- perhaps remain in school- but yet strike out into paths completely untrodden? Will you let your child create a unique life by using their God given talents in new and unproven ways? Will you give your child the permission to live an unrepeated, unrepeatable life? Does the the word permission in the last question makes you squirm uncomfortably because you believe that your child should never have to ask you for PERMISSION to live her own life?

The things this child, scientist, maker and creator Angad talks about, demonstrate the flight of an untrammeled mind. You might try to tell yourself that the boy must be extraordinarily creative and intelligent. You might also rationalize and say things like, “Oh, but my child doesn’t have that spark! I know, right? I’m the parent after all!”

Are you willing to say with certainty that your child hasn’t no capacity to build an exceptional life; to create hues the world has never seen before? Can you? Really?!

I don’t think so even for a  moment. The only extraordinary thing Anagad has probably had is an unlimited sky and someone to tell him that the sky belongs to him… and is waiting for him to conquer it. The boy is surely imaginative and brilliant; no one can deny that. But more than that, he has belief in his own brilliance. That is what makes him extraordinary. Diamonds need to be polished; only then they let their inner brilliance shine through. You know that, right?

A good diamond polisher also knows that polishing the diamond is not about force but about the finesses with which he identifies the facets to bring out the best there is within the diamond. He knows that each diamond must be polished along its own unique facets because each one is unlike any other diamond on earth.

Will today be the day when you will give someone a belief in their brilliance? Will you show someone that you believe in them, show it so often and so completely, that they begin to believe in their brilliance too? Will you become the wind beneath the wings of a Maker? Will you thus, let yourself also become a Maker?

Serenely Rapt is proud to salute Angad Daryani those who were the wind beneath his wings!

May your tribe multiply!

Picture Mine
Picture Mine

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Angad’s website has details about home schooling and about National Institute of Open Schooling. My eldest one did her 12th from NIOS, has completed her graduation and is has recently begun her career as a Jewellery Designer. My second daughter will be appearing for her 10th from NIOS. She is a home schooler.

If you wish to know more about home schooling, you may go through the details at Angad’s website or at NIOS site. You can also contact me on Facebook.

Update: I am not advocating- or insisting upon- home schooling. It was suitable for my daughters to go the home- schooling way for various reasons. I surely don’t mean to suggest that all children should be home- schooled.

What I AM advocating is freedom for the child. Freedom choose his life work and to approach it in a way that matches him in the best way possible given his temperament and talents. All I am asking for is that each child be given that right to choose. As parents, it our job to make sure that the child is exposed to enough options to be able to make informed decisions and to support the child once she has decided. Do you think your life would have been different if you had received that freedom?