He was 12 years old, hyperactive, prone to distraction, and was deemed "difficult" by his teacher. He came home one day and handed a letter written by the school to his mum. His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child. She read: “Your child is a genius and the school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers to train him.

Please teach him yourself”. His mother decided to home-school her son because she believed that her boy had a lot of untapped potential. It is no surprise that this boy grew up to be one of the greatest inventors the world has ever known. What a shock it must have been when he discovered years later that the letter he had brought home from school years ago had read, “your son is mentally ill so we won’t allow him to come to school anymore.” This great inventor and genius happened to be Thomas Alva Edison. At 22 years he invented a Universal stock Printer and a year later, set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey, and employed several machinists. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.   

As a parent, I love to read such stories because it confirms the fact that it takes a parent who doesn’t give up on his/her child to see them through, regardless of any contradictory opinions.

What strengths have you identified in your child? Pause and think! How can you bring out the best in your child? Let us stop comparing our children with their siblings and other children. If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid. You will agree with me that Albert Einstein was right when he said that ‘every child is a genius’.