Try Again Video
Please do click on the link above and watch this video on YouTube BEFORE reading this entry. It is well worth it and what I write after this won't be anything at all without first witnessing the 3 minute video.
This video was going around Facebook today. I was touched to the point of tears and inspired to the point of wanting to share this man's message with everyone I care about.
Of course, the two people who I wanted to show it to the most were my, largely unschooled, (almost) 10 and (almost) 12 year olds.
Since I'm always harping on the value of EFFORT as being of far greater consequence than SUCCESS, I thought this the perfect opportunity to show how one begets the other, eventually, in real life... from a real life inspiration.
Expecting something to the effect of:
"Yeah.... that's what you're always telling us Mom!"
"Wow... I know you're always talking to us about effort... but after listening to him, I really get it now!"
Instead, what I got was:
"I wonder what the toilet looks like at his house?"...
Then began all the pontifications on accessible toilets for a person without legs:
"No, I think it's probably just a hole in the floor like Asian toilets..."
"Yeah or toilets from the 1700s."
"Yeah, why should he have to work so hard just to get onto the toilet? Nobody else has to work that hard to go to the bathroom..."
After they had come to the end of this particular discussion journey, I asked them,
"So, do you know what his message was?"
"Uh... yeah...(like, didn't you get it Mom? It was pretty simple)... It was try again."
As they left my office, they once again picked up on their conversation about different toilet design possibilities for people with physical challenges.
I must admit to being torn... Sigh... I should be happy about this...
After working in the Human Rights field before being a SAHM, I should be proud that they think along these lines at such an early age without my guidance. But somehow, it just feels like the power of his message was lost in the midst of all the toilet ethics.
I have to wonder, have I wronged my children somewhere in my teachings and guidance?!
"The world may never know..."
(Tootsie Pop Owl)
That's unschooling at work for you.
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You never really know what they're learning... here in the Gray Zone... or anywhere else, for that matter. ;)
