How a Mother Nurtured her Son's Hidden Genius

This Mother Tore Off Labels And Nurtured Her Son’s Hidden Genius

By Stephanie Broadhurst/The Mother List
Here’s an incredible story about a mother who totally disregarded what experts said about her son and threw off the label that was slapped on him as a toddler. Instead, she followed her own instincts – with astounding results.
Kristine Barnett’s son Jacob was diagnosed with autism when he was 2, and doctors said he would never speak. She tried special education programs and therapies aimed at addressing his limitations. When teachers told her there was no hope, she rebelled and took her own path.
“A lot of people thought that I had lost my mind,” she recalls.
Instead of focusing on Jacob’s limitations, Kristine nurtured his interests. Now her 15-year-old son is on track to win a Nobel Prize for his work in theoretical physics.
Relying on the insights she developed at her in-home daycare, Kristine resolved to follow Jacob’s “spark” — his passionate interests. Why concentrate on what he couldn’t do? Why not focus on what he could? This philosophy, along with her belief in the power of childhood play, helped her son grow in incredible ways.
“He liked repetitive behaviors. He would play with a glass and look at the light, twisting it for hours on end. Instead of taking it away, I would give him 50 glasses, fill them with water at different levels and let him explore,” she says. “I surrounded him with whatever he loved.”
The more she did that, the more it worked. Then one night, as he was being tucked in, Jacob spoke. “It was like music … because everybody had said it was an impossible thing,” Kristine recalls.”I would tuck him in every night and say, ‘Goodnight, baby Jacob, you’re my baby angel, and I love you very much.’ One night he looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘Night-night baby bagel.’ All along he must have thought I had been calling him a bagel!”
Jacob is now a student of theoretical physics at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, with an IQ measured to be higher than Einstein’s.
Kristine chronicles her son’s incredible journey and breakthrough in her book “The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism.”
When she talks to other moms who have children on the spectrum, ADHD, learning disorders, or other disabilities, she tells them: “It’s really important that when you have a label, you don’t let that label define you. What are your children good at? Let that define them. Create motivations that are self-driven. Let them pursue what they love.”
“As parents, we know in our hearts what our kids need,” she says, “and we need to trust that a little more. Even if that goes against what others are saying.”

Reblogged via : The Mother List

What has humanity come down to?

Today I was crossing the road & there was this poor lady (who looked physically distorted) trying to get passerby's attention.
But so many people passed her without even looking at her.
She wasn't begging for money, she was asking someone to buy her an asthma medicine (an empty bottle of which she held in her hand)
& people passed by as if she did not even exist.

What has mankind fallen to if we are not compassionate to fellow human beings?

Why Learning is Important when you can Google Everything

Most of us can remember formulae, etc., or google most of the stuff we talk about in class. But the one thing you cannot google is how to think.
- Professor Kaul

Kyle's Valedictorian Speech will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

The Story Of Kyle

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school.  His name was Kyle.  It looked like he was carrying all of his books.  I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on Friday?  He must really be a nerd.”

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.  As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.  His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.  He looked up, and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.

Wisdom tooth : ironic name? (genetic reference)

Wisdom tooth is named so, because the teeth usually develop in the age of 17-25 yrs. when people are supposedly becoming wise in college (hah! How false is that!)

Anyway, I found another interesting irony in this, a genetic one. While reading through some material, I came across that there is evidence that the pre-historic human walked on 4 limbs & had a wide jaw to catch prey. As the pre-historic human evolved the skull & jaw structure changed, started walking on 2 limbs, hands became the primary source of food catching & the brain grew larger, leaving a smaller jaw & ultimately less space for teeth. Which effectively is the reason that wisdom teeth have become vestigial.

Nobody needs 32 teeth for eating processed soft foods!

Brain grows larger, humans gets smarter (wiser, for the sake of irony) & that leads to wisdom teeth!

Wisdom from a teenager : Perspectives & Anekantvada

This is a (long awaited) guest post written by Kruti (www.KrutiMunot.com)

She presents a different perspective or rather, maybe an analogy between science & religion wrt my last post, What if our understanding of the universe is like the three blind men & an elephant.

Kruti writes

I came across a slightly different version of The Blind Men and the Elephant while reading something about Jainism. Anekantavada, or multiplicity of perspectives. 

Each of the blind men was right and wrong at the same time. He was right from his point of view- well, the leg of the elephant was like a pillar, wasn't it? But the elephant, in all, was not, so he was wrong from the perspective of somebody who had seen the elephant in its entirety. The same applies to people, to peoples' decisions...

Similarly, one of Jainism's key principles is the multiplicity of viewpoints. No human can independently proclaim that s/he knows the absolute truth; everything is relative. Be it good or bad, ugly or beautiful, it is the perspective that matters. Today, something that seems correct to me might seem terribly wrong to you tomorrow. Who judges what the truth is? We don't know, we perhaps never will. Maybe the next time we think someone is doing something unlikable, we could put ourselves in their shoes and try to reason it out.

PS: This is a little off-track from Sambhav bhaiyya's post, but the thought just came to my mind! Yet another example of varied perspectives, eh?

------------------##---------------

Thank you Kruti

Your true value

A well-known speaker started off his public speech in a strange manner – by holding up a Rupee 1000 Note !! Holding up the Note high in the air in one of his hands, he addressed the eagerly looking curious audience, "Who would like this Rupee 1000 Note?" With great cheers almost all of them raised their hands with the shout, "I want it", "I want it" !! He said, "Oh! that's nice. Well, I am going to give this Note to one of you... But, first let me do this." Then, he crumpled the Note in his hands vigorously & now showed the awkwardly wrinkled 1000 Rupee Note by holding up high in his hand. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" The same hands went up in the air this time too."Well", he replied, "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe like a mad man. It seemed he is deriving great merriment in his unusual act. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. It was so smudgy that no one could recognise it now as a 1000 Rupee Note. "Now who still wants it?" Strangly, now also, all the hands were up in the air with equal cheers & spirit.Now he addressed his audience with great feeling. "My friends," said he, "You have all learned a very valuable lesson today. No matter what I did to this valuable Rupee Note, all of you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth the same - Rs.1000/-.Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt of shame & insult by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come in our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. In the eyes of God, you are the same "most precious jewel of His".
"something HAS A VALUE ONLY IF ITS VALUE IS VALUED !"

Reblogged via storyforsoul.blogspot.in

What if our study of the universe is like the story of the blind man & the elephant

There is a classic story of three blind men & an elephant.

There were three blind men who encountered an elephant. They wanted to 'see' an elephant & decided to feel it up.

One grabbed its trunk, another it's leg & a third one its tail.

The first one exclaimed, an elephant is flexible, like a rope, thick on the top, thins down at the bottom.

The second said, the elephant is like a pillar, sturdy. No chance of flexibility. Maybe some joints but not even close to a rope.

The third one said, you are nth wrong, an elephant is like a snake, thin & flexible. & I cannot hold it still. It ends above the aur so maybe it is hanging from a tree! I hope it does not attack me.

I think human understanding of the Universe at this stage is similar to those three blind men. We see one part of the universe & we think we have fathomed it. We have discovered gravity, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics & how they work. We think we know how the atoms work, how chemistry works. We think we know how atoms are but we have never 'seen' one. We think we know how atoms are made & even how galaxies are made. Each of those maybe correct in their own rights, but I think we are still away from truly understanding the Universe.

We still do not know how to save the Earth, the only planet till date where we can survive & how to save ourselves from ourselves.

Why is laughter contagious?

No, this is not a scientific answer, this is a hypothesis based on experience.

I think our brain has a special cell (rather a unit of ) Nakalchi Bandar. These are mimicry cells. They may have evolved as a part of our learning process. How to learn, how to eat, how to hunt, how to light a fire etc. most learning is mimicry.

The same cells could be responsive for the yawn chain => you look at someone yawning & you start to yawn & the chain continues.

Similarly for laughing?

Peace : Why can't we all sit down & have tea (or coffee)

Kruti Munot, a (brilliant) high-school student, a thinking teenager has this to say to the World Leaders,

'why don't we all sit down & drink Tea (or coffee)' or juice for that matter, I add. But relax, it is just life.

Why do we need so many weapons & nuclear weapons? What for? If we use them, any of us, ultimately all of us will be dead. More of us will be dead, anyway.

& what will the firing one get? Smug satisfaction that a kid has. 

You can get that satisfaction by writing a story, playing badminton (or other sports) or so many other things?

Where is the need to fight? Why the desire to fight & kill?

Relax.

&

Live.

Oh, & read Tuesdays with Morrie while you are at it. Good read.

Atma is energy?

This is a post that my third class self should have written. Anyway, it is never too late, just as Professor Morrie said.

3rd class, I came across Energy, as a topic in Science, & the first law of thermodynamics, Energy can neither be created, nor destroyed.

Oh, & what a revelation that was. I immediately thought of something else that I was taught (& still believe) can neither be created nor destroyed, Atma (soul).

It felt like I had just discovered a great secret. Atma is energy. (not that all energy is Atma) but Atma is just another form of energy.

Whether it is true or not, I still new to find (& prove, if I want Atma to be officially called, Sambhav's Energy or follow Sambhav's law of Energy) but I have re-found a place to start.