Never Color Outside of the Lines!

I attended the WBMA (Wisconsin Biotech) conference last week and had the opportunity to listen to a wonderful speaker - Sir Ken Robinson. As many of you know, I have aspirations of being Matt Foley (in a van down by the river) someday and so I jump at the opportunity to listen to a good speaker and catch a little inspiration of my own every now and then. Sir Ken was an articulate gent, but what captured my attention most was not his style or anything related to how he delivered his material. He shared a story from his upcoming book "Epiphany" which I would like to share with you.

There was this little girl that was having all kinds of problems in school. She had problems focusing, she had problems sitting still and she had problems listening. All of her teachers told her mother she was a bad student, that she had a learning disability and that she need to go see a specialist to do something about it. Her mother was concerned about her daughter's well being so she took their advice and they went to see a child psychologist about her daughters "problems."

The psychologist was a little non-traditional and proceeded to ask the little girl to sit still in the same room while he questioned her mother for ~1/2 hour about the problems her daughter was having in school. After the questioning was through, the psychologist asked the mother to go outside with him to discuss her daughter's issues further. Before he left the room the man thanked the little girl for being so patient and that her part of the process was over. As they walked out of the room, he turned on a radio and shut the door. The mother, expecting the worst, turned to the psychologist and waited for a barrage of scientific explanations related to her daughter's condition. The psychologist just sat there for a moment and instructed the mother to look through the window just out of sight so that her daughter could not see them looking in on her.

After a few moments, the little girl got up and started gracefully walking around the room. She moved from one end of the room to another, skipping, spinning and turning eventually making her way up on one of the tables and began dancing...her way of alleviating all the pent up anxiety she accumulated over the past 30 minutes. After watching all of this, the psychologist turned to the mother and said there is nothing wrong with your little girl. She is talented, beautiful and like any other child wants and needs to learn. The only difference is that she needs to move, she doesn't need to be confined and for that matter I would enroll her in a dance class or two. You need to help her learn to explore her talents in a way all the other teachers in her life have not been able to do so.

Her mother wisely heeded the advice and enrolled her daughter in a dance school. Little Gillian Lynne excelled from the get go and went onto found one most famous dance companies in the world. Her most famous accolades include choreographing both Phantom of the Opera and Cats, but she almost never became a dancer had it not been for the advice of a man who took the time and a unique approach to help her mother understand she needed to find her own way.

Stories like this hit too close to home for me. Sometimes I feel like that teacher who struggles to make the kids color inside the lines when it really doesn't matter. They need to and should find their own way and its up to us to help them explore how. Lord knows I never, ever colored outside of the lines. Neat, perfect and uniform...that's the way I wanted to do things...and I have a bridge I would like to sell you in Brooklyn if you are so interested.

And now you know the rest of the story - GOOD DAY!