Embrace Diversity

■ POSITIVE PARENTING

Embrace Diversity

By Ivis Mateos

The educational system standardizes the method by which our children are supposed to learn.

Parents standardize the expectation of the way a child is supposed to grow.

What happened to embracing originality?

To raising children that can express their innate intelligence/creativity?

The education system is a failed system for the majority of our children.

Why: because we are relying on a method created in a state whose population consists of a majority of individuals that do not represent the diversity of our country.

Whether it be nationality, economic status, environment, etc. We are measuring the success of 100% of our children in a method that applies to a small percentage of our nation’s children.

But this column is not about the education system, it’s about the standardized method parents are similarly applying in raising their offspring.

Our expectations as parents are ridiculous. We are sabotaging ourselves and our children. Who are we kidding! We try convincing ourselves that we can raise our second child the same way we raised our first. We compare them to our neighbor’s kids, or other kids in their preschool and wonder if our kids are normal or an alien switched at birth. I remember with my first child, I would use the 1-3 counting method for disciplining, and before I would finish saying 2, he was already following instructions to avoid spending time in his thinking chair. The second child, well, I could count to 10 or 100 and he would continue to run around the dinner table trying to avoid me catching him. I looked like a mad woman by the time I was done running behind him. Tried that a couple of times before I realized it was best to talk him through choices and consequences. One of my boys is an introvert, hippie, and very laid-back. I try to spend quality time with him by taking him to a movie, inviting him to a quiet dinner, or taking a short trip together, and then, I try to give him time to express himself (notice I say try). My other child is a talker, hipster and has infinite energy. I take him to the park and let him run around for a while, to let him release some energy or he will drive me insane. Our car ride back home is usually our best time to talk about life.

There is not one child identical to another, there is not one successful method of teaching or raising a child. We need to learn to embrace their individuality, appreciate their weaknesses and encourage their uniqueness.