Kids Can: Enthusiastically Supporting the Improbable

We’ve all heard Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk on Creativity in which he tells the story of a little girl working on drawing a picture of G-D in art class.  We all smiled when he reported that in response to the teacher informing the little girl that no one knows what G-D looks like, the little girl informed the teacher, “they will in a minute.”

We smiled because it reminded us that kids don’t always put much stake in what adults say we know and don’t know.  Watching my own children as they question and communicate about themselves and the world around them often gives me cause to wonder if kids actually know some stuff that us adults may have forgotten along the way.  Who knows (kids, maybe)?

Yesterday afternoon my five-year-old was “not feeling so well,” my one-and-a-half-year-old was taking a nap, my two-month-old was eating, pooping, and cooing, and my wife was managing that situation, so my three-year-old and I decided to get out for some sledding.  It was warm, but there was certainly enough snow on the ground for a few runs before the full thaw.  We bundled up, snuck out the back door, and headed to the hill.

Typically the sled is in the garage, but because of the intensity of use lately we found it propped up against the deck.  I reached out to grab it but was stifled by a shriek of, “No daddy, I want to carry it…all by myself!”  If you live or work with young children you’ve heard this battle cry before.  “All by myself,” is a standard in the three-year-old lexicon.

I looked at the lad standing there with his arms at ninety degree angles from his body, propped up by the restrictive winter gear we torture our children with, hands no more than mitten laden, all but useless caps on the ends, and I felt confident that the he wouldn’t be able to grasp the sled, let along carry it “all by himself.”  The sun was thinking about going down relatively soon, so in an effort to expedite the process I offered to help.  No go.  Wasn’t happening.  I conceded because my adult mind knew that he would quickly see the futility of his mission and give up.  Again, no go.  Wasn’t happening.  He was going to find a way.  He did find a way.

Not only did my strong-willed little fella (get’s it from his mother) carry a slow laden, slippery sled that was longer than his own body to the car, he insisted on lifting it up and sliding it in the back window, you guessed it…”all by himself!”  I was robustly instructed to pick him up so that he could reach high enough at one point.  With his clear directives I did just fine.

When we got to hill he insisted on carrying that sled from the car to the top, he insisted on toting the big old thing around to find the best launching spot, and he made sure that there was no confusion about who would carry the sled back up the hill after each run…him.  I doubted his ability to do each of those things, in part because he was so little compared to the sled and the hill, in part because the melting snow combined with the many sled tracks made things unbelievably slippery, and I guess, in part because I’m a goofy old man who sometimes forgets that kids don’t believe in limiting themselves in the ways that adults sometimes do…even though they’re often relatively small.

The fact is we don’t know what we’re capable of until we put our hearts and souls into something, and even then there’s always more passion to muster from those who are adept at mustering passion.  Let’s foster that ability in the kids we serve.  Let’s support them in carrying their sleds, exploring their interests, and even reaching for stuff that we’re not sure is even reachable.  I can tell you from experience, once they reach it they’ll let us know whether it was or not.

Let’s enthusiastically support the improbable as our small kids dream about the big stuff that small kids dream about.  Let’s stand back and watch them prove us wrong.  Let’s let them remind that even the most wise and knowledgeable adult has only to learn for the rest of his life.  Let’s let them show us the way into the bright future that we’re all hoping and working so hard to provide for them.

Live. Learn. Lead.

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Dream Big. Work Hard. Be Well.

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