It can be heartbreaking. Your child has failed a subject in a school exam. Or has not done well in the SEA. Or doesn’t seem to be as good at sports as his friends. Nowadays, mothers get worried if their child is not spending lots of time on a dumbphone with their “friends,” some of whom may be sexual perverts masquerading as young people.
All this means nothing in the scheme of life. Examples of children who “failed” or were thought to be “slow” or socially inadequate or poor athletes and who went on to become worldwide successes as adults, or at least became a competent and contented human being, abound.
Newton, Yeats, Darwin, Einstein, Edison, Churchill, General Patton, Agatha Christie, Rockefeller, Belafonte, Ringo Starr and Richard Branson were all considered failures in school. Their stories are fascinating. These men and women succeeded after teachers and parents had given up on them.
Some of the comments are really quite funny. Isaac Newton, mathematical genius, discoverer of the Law of Gravity and Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, was a preemie, not expected to live. His school reports describe him as “idle and inattentive.” He probably thought his teachers slow, dotish and not worth his attention.
The extraordinary poet, William Butler Yeats, was sent to lessons in spelling and grammar, but he never learned to spell. Born today in T&T, he would be called stupid and positioned at the back of the class.
Charles Darwin, who came from a high-functioning, very successful business family, was considered “rather below the common standard of intellect.” His father thought he was “lazy and too dreamy.” He was probably busily working out why his family had evolved beyond that of their neighbours.
Alfred Einstein was an unusual child. He did not speak until he was three and did not read until he was seven. His teachers and parents thought he was mentally slow, “adrift forever in his foolish dreams.” What appeared to be laziness in class was really boredom, something common in highly intelligent children who are bored stiff memorising facts and dates. He failed his first admission test to university. He got through the second time and blazed a trail for others to follow in physics and mathematics.
Thomas Edison is probably the most famous and productive inventor of all time, with more than 1,000 patents in his name, including the electric light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture camera. He was hearing impaired and started school late. He did so badly he dropped out of school after three months. Teachers said he was too “addled” to learn. His father thought he was stupid, and probably “a dunce.” He was then home-schooled by his mother. He left behind this lovely quote about her: “My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”
Winston Churchill, perhaps the greatest Englishman of all time, failed the 6th grade! He later wrote: “I was, on the whole, considerably discouraged by my school days. It was not pleasant to feel oneself so completely outclassed and left behind at the beginning of the race.”
General George Patton was described as “bright and intelligent and bursting with energy.” But he was unable to read and write. Patton’s wife continuously had to correct his spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
Another child with dyslexia was Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, himself the son of a high school dropout, John D. Rockefeller, and the first billionaire in history, had this to say about himself, “I was one of the ‘puzzle children’, a dyslexic and I still have a hard time reading today.”
Agatha Christie was recognised as the “slow one” in the family. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for her. Her letters were said to be without originality. She said, “I was an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.”
Harry Belafonte had a learning disability. His words: “I grew up in a school system where nobody understood the meaning of learning disorder. In the West Indies, I was constantly being physically abused because the whipping of students was permitted.”
Sir Richard Branson quit school at 16. He couldn’t make it. Like so many successful businessmen and mechanics, he is dyslexic.
Ringo Starr spent three years in hospital from complications of a ruptured appendix. He couldn’t keep up in school and dropped out at age 15, barely able to read or write. He joined the Beatles in 1962 when he was 22. The rest is history.
Time and time again, children have proven their parents, teachers and society wrong. Time and time again, that quote from Edison becomes applicable.
