Our Children....the leaders of tomorrow, we must listen and learn from them.

As a certified Kumon Instructor, part of my mandate is to attend monthly meeting along with other instructors, participate in workshops and study groups and keep working on my worksheets............yes even I do my daily Kumon worksheets and try not to complain about it, especially in front of my children!
Part of our workshops have always included learning from excellent students. For a long time there I just couldn't grasp this idea of learning from excellent students. They are already doing so well so why so much focus on them? Why not focus on those falling behind, those struggling, those trying so hard to catch up to grade level?
At some point, hard to say exactly when this was, I did get my epiphany, my 'aha' moment and realised that indeed only when I observe my excellent students am I able to learn from them in order to apply to my less able students the same strategies, thoughts, styles and motivations. Only when I learn how my excellent students continue to excel and work well beyond their grade level, continuously surprise me and go well beyond my expectations, do I continue to grow and become a better and more learned instructor. When I am limited in my beliefs I hold back my students too, thinking they cannot go forth beyond their age or level. And I am pleasantly surprised at every class day. Every center day brings a new revelation and I continue to learn from all my students, the excellent ones and the ones working hard to excel.

Let me share this lovely, thought provoking video with you.
A voracious reader from age three, Adora Svitak's first serious foray into writing -- at age five -- was limited only by her handwriting and spelling. (Her astonishing verbal abilities already matched that of young adults over twice her age.) As her official bio says, At age seven, she typed out over 250,000 words -- poetry, short stories, observations about the world -- in a single year.
Her breakthroughwould soon come "in the form of a used Dell laptop her mother bought her." Svitak has since fashioned her beyond-her-years wordsmithing into an inspiring campaign for literacy -- speaking across the country to both adults and kids. She is author of Flying Fingers, a book on learning.

http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html
If the link does not work, please copy and paste into your browsers. Do share these videos with your children and other family members too.

The only limitations in life are the ones we set for ourselves. As I always say, "Dream big dreams, for only big dreams have the power to motivate us" Enjoy.
Sanjit