Proud daddy moment.

It didn't come easily though, at least not as easily as it had for me when I was a kid, but Smallsteps can be brave when challenged and she doesn't like to be outperformed.

Her best friend has been able to ride for awhile already.

Peer pressure. It is why social groups have more influence than parents. But, that is a problem for another day, as for now, we can just be happy together that she has finally got hold of riding and you know, once you have learned - it is like riding a bike.

She is growing up fast

Ina few months, she is going to be starting preschool and one of the challenges she is going to probably face is the same that I did. In the early years of school where she is meant to learn to read, write and do simple math, she is going to be bored, as she can already do those things. She is gifted when it comes to language skills, but she is not when it comes to these areas, but because she has had a very analogue childhood diet, she has ended up learning a lot that it seems most of her friends aren't able to do.

For example, the other day at the daycare they did a "reading test" to see if the kids had developmental problems and to track their level. The problem was that the test didn't even come close to challenging the level Smallsteps has, as it tested for skills that she had three years ago already. This means that as a skill-based sorting system, it indicates the expectations for the highest levels too.

I remember that I when I started school and the other kids were learning to read and write, I was sitting in the corner reading books by myself, as there was no "advanced" tasks to work on. It is probably one of the reasons that I was such a bad student throughout school also, as in those early stages, I never learned how to learn for that school-based system.

I have heard the same thing from some dual mother-tongue friends who speak English, as they had to do English at school, but they were able to answer the questions based on their knowledge of the language, not their understanding of the grammar. This meant that while they were native speakers, several of them failed in the grammar tests, because they didn't know the actual rule formulas.

But, what is more important?

Well, that depends on how you look at it. Practical skill is in my opinion far more important than book skill, but so much of our individual opportunity and future is dictated by the theory of knowledge, not the application of knowledge. Passing those tests is a prerequisite for all kinds of professions and quite often, the people who are actually best suited for the application, are omitted because they aren't able to compete with the book-smart students.

I saw this a lot through my own education path, where people who were good at class were given opportunity, but that doesn't mean that they were able to apply what they know at a trade later. Several of my friends went into medicine because they could, but didn't last long once they had their degree, because their personality wasn't suited to the work itself. Being able to dunk, doesn't make you a skilled and valuable basketballer.

But, at the same time...

It is good to be bored.The most creative amongst us are those who are able to find things for themselves to do when they are bored, rather than just going through the paces of what everyone else is doing. Maybe if Smallsteps is bored enough at school, she will earlier start the journey of self-discovery of what actually interests her and where her real talents lay, instead of conforming to the activities of the curriculum, that teach people to be average employees, not cutting edge developers.

As a parent, what should I be aiming for? The best of the average, or the average of the best? I feel that school encourages the best of the average, where the lowest common denominator takes the lion's share of attention and resources, because that is the easiest way to increase the average results. Those few who are at the top get left out, because improving their scores doesn't move the needle much overall, so they get left to their own devices to challenge themselves.

For me, it doesn't matter what Smallsteps ends up doing, but I believe that feeling that challenge that increases our options and realizes more of our potential, is rewarding for humans to experience. I think that we as humans have a mechanism of continual improvement in us, but we often satisfy ourselves with being god enough in relation to others, rather than the best that we can be in respects to who we are.

I want my child to be happy

And this requires her to be able to be self-directed and feel that sense of progression through challenge, rather than getting what she wants. Riding a bike is a good example as while I was there every step of the way and in the early stages supporting her riding, she wasn't happy until she could do it for herself, that riding a bike was a skill that she owned.

Information is cheap. Anyone can Google book knowledge.
Not everyone can apply it well.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]