“What do you do for a living?” Sir Ken Robinson asked a man who attended his event.
"I'm a fireman," the man said.
Sir Ken then asked the man when he decided to become a fireman. The man shared that as a child he had always wanted to be a fireman, and that desire had never left him.
When he was a senior in high school, his teacher asked the class what their plans were for after they graduated. Everyone was going to college except for our fireman.
“I am going to join the fire service,” he said.
His teacher tried to persuade him that it would be a mistake because he was a good student, and he would be wasting his bright future in the fire service, but the young man went on to join the fire service anyway.
THE WISDOM WITHIN THE IRONY
And six months before speaking with Sir Ken, our fireman had saved that same teacher's life!
His teacher and his wife had been in a serious car accident, and our fireman pulled them both out of the car, administering CPR to his teacher.
If the fireman’s teacher had known that his student would one day save his life, would he have advised him to go to college instead of joining the fire service?
Probably not, but in this story lies the key to the kind of direction we want to give our children, so that they can find their true calling.
“The meaning in life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
What the teacher failed to recognize, and what the late Sir Ken imparted over the course of his profession, is that we all have a grand purpose in life.
YOUR CHILD’S PARTICULAR WORK
As Rumi, the sage and poet, said, "Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”
Our fireman's grand purpose was to become a fireman, which would eventually include saving his teacher's life; the desire for that work had been put in his heart.
Most of us don't know what desire was put into our hearts because we were divorced from our natural inclinations in the school system, never having had the time or direction to follow our interests and see where they led us.
Consequently, most of us are not living our best lives, lives that are in alignment with our hearts' desire.
A CHANCE TO DO IT DIFFERENTLY
As stay-at-home moms and as homeschoolers, we can offer our children a different experience. We can introduce our children to a myriad of activities and new skills as they are growing up, and we will notice what it is that they are inclined towards and what it is that lights them up.
As they get older, we can steer them in those directions until eventually one of their interests will stand out above the others.
We want to allow for the interests of our children to emerge without imposing our own desires onto them. In other words, if we expect our child to grow up and become a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer, then we've missed the point.
For our children to live meaningful lives and to reach their potential, they need the freedom and opportunity to discover what it is that they were born to do.
It doesn't have to be one thing that they do throughout their entire lives, but they need to be able to choose what they do, even if it sounds crazy to us.
Because only they are intimately in touch with the unfolding of their lives, and we have to trust that whatever they choose to do in the present is leading them towards the fulfillment of their purpose.
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for. ”
Sometimes after one career, a person has developed a combination of skills that allow them to become excellent at a new profession, such as lawyers who become great writers or athletes who become brilliant physical therapists or gardeners who become superb chefs.
As a parent, it behooves us to remind ourselves that we do not know what our child's journey will include, and it isn't our job to decide this for our child.
Our greatest role as a parent will always be that of a guide. We want to guide our children into adulthood in ways that are in alignment with their uniqueness so that they can become their very best at whatever they choose to do.
Don’t miss your free download, 6 Reasons Homeschooled Kids Have Better Social Skills.
Get a copy of Liz’s “could not live without” book, Education’s Not the Point: How Schools Fail to Train Children’s Minds and Nurture Their Characters with groundbreaking Essays on educating your kids by John Taylor Gatto, Dorothy Sayers, and Liz herself.
About Elizabeth Y. Hanson
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a “whole” child, based on tradition and modern research, Liz devotes her time to helping parents to get it right.
Liz is a homeschooling thought-leader, as well as the creator of two unique online courses, Raise Your Child Well: Preserving Your Child's Natural Genius by Laying a Solid Foundation During the First Seven Years and the Smart Homeschooler Academy: Homeschooling the "Whole" Child for a Well-Trained Mind and Character
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Liz has 23 years of experience raising children and working in education.
Liz is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. For a copy of The Short Angry History of Compulsory Schooling, click here.
