According to Dictionary.com, Mediocrity is the “state or quality of being mediocre”. To be mediocre is to be ordinary or moderate, and is often considered to be inferior to others.
In my home, mediocrity is not OK. Mediocrity, however, is the goal of public education. There is a written set of minimum standards a child must meet, and if those goals are reached, then the system has done its job. Greatness still happens, but it is not the end goal.
I have a theory. I believe that every man, woman, and child, holds within them a gift; a genius. Valorie Delp touches on this in her article, Teaching Your Auditory Learner. Each one of us is gifted in some area. For some, that gift is obvious. Being obviously artistic, I was educated in the Fine Arts in college, and eventually found that my specific gift is visual special abilities. I can look at a sofa in a store and know if it will or will not fit through a certain door, or in a certain space. I can also look at a piece of fabric, go the store, without the fabric, and purchase a coordinating piece. Needless to say, I have been successful in interior design (until I decided to homeschool). I only wish I had discovered these things about myself earlier in life. Some of us have more than one gift, and that makes determining them more difficult. My son for instance is musically inclined, and instructors have said he has certain giftedness. At the same time, he has a strong technical bent and loves programming and writing html as well. He has been told that he is as good as any adult in this area. We have no idea which way he will go, or if he will find a way to combine these areas of giftedness. As parents, it is our job to determine and cultivate our children’s gifts. It is not an easy feat, but to help them rise above mediocrity, it must be done.
To find that certain gift, or area of genius, you have to allow a child a certain degree of freedom to explore their interests. You have to repeatedly ask them what they enjoy and keep digging into those areas with them to pinpoint their specific gift. At the same time, you cannot hold them too rigidly to what you have perceived as their gift, because as the child grows and evolves you may find that what you previously perceived as being your child’s area of genius is just a small part of their capacity for greatness.
Related articles:
Ten Signs that Your Child May be Gifted