genius

Genius

Everyone's a genius;

it may be hard to believe,

And for many people, it is hard to conceive,

Yet, the truth is the truth no matter what people think.

For a non-believer can't change truth with a wink.

The idea of this poem may be hard to believe when the high school dropout rate is about 25%. And when very few students get top grades. When it seems only a few people become successful according to the standards of our society. When the world produces one Einstein in a century. When the great majority of the people deny that they could be geniuses.

However, just consider this. A baby can learn without going to school the following: To walk, talk, eat by himself, tell colors, one or more languages, to count, to identify thousands of objects, how to communicate, how to get along with other people, to control his bodily functions and so forth. It seems only a genius can learn what a child learns in the first 5 years without formal schooling.

If this is true then the question is why aren't there more recognized geniuses in all endeavors? It has been said that every child begins school as a question mark and by the time he reaches fifth grade is a period. This is because our parenting beliefs and educational systems tend to stifle the genius of children. Our school systems and unfortunately many parents haven't the skills to truly educate, support, empower, encourage the genius each one of us has. Our system rewards those students who conform to the standards for education and those who don't are lumped together. If Edison's mother had listened to his first teacher who said after three months of formal schooling that Edison would not amount to much, it is quite possible we would not have the electric light and many other inventions he created.

In our society, if a person is highly competent according to certain standards that person is considered a genius. If someone wants to expand into areas, which are unknown, that person may be considered stupid. It happened to Fulton when he built the steamboat that his peers called "Fulton's Folly." And if you check the history of many of our modern day necessities, you will find many of them experienced the same fate.

To use this poem, make a commitment to encourage and support yourself, others and especially your children to explore and develop their talents. We each have talents, if developed, can shine through as genius. Just as a tiny acorn can become a magnificent oak tree if nourished by the sun, rain and the soil and supported by nature, each one of us has the potential to express our talents if given the same chance and support as a tiny acorn.

It is the function of creative men to perceive the relations between thought, or things, or forms of expression that may seem utterly different, and to be able to combine them into some new forms--the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. William Plomer

The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers. Arthur Koestler

The world is only beginning to see the wealth of a nation consists more than anything else in the number of superior men, it harbors. Geniuses are ferments; and when they come together, as they have done in certain lands at certain times, the whole population seems to share in the higher energy which awaken. The effects are incalculable and often not easy to trace in detail, but they are pervasive and momentous. William James