“Shining Bright”

While driving from one of my son’s classes (he is currently homeschooled) the Little M. decided to share with me how he felt while he was still at school. We tend to do that; all of a sudden he remembers something that happened ages ago and talks about is as if it had happened just yesterday. When he was still attending Steiner School in London, he said that he felt “useless” in the classroom. Useless because all the kids around him could read and write and he couldn’t. To be precise, not all the kids could read and write but most could and the ones who couldn’t slowly were making progress.
He said that he tried hard to work on his reading and writing. He thought that if he worked harder, he could catch up with everyone else. But in reality, it never happened.
For a very long time (way too long) he received no help from his class teacher or the school and his anxiety levels was high and his self-confidence non-existing.
When he told me how he felt for so long (look how long it took him to say anything) my heart sunk because this is how I felt at school most of the time.

As parents, we try our hardest to help our kids to shine bright, but we can’t do it alone. Schools must be inclusive and should listen to parents and parents’ concerns to make the next generations confident and shine brightly with their talents. To achieve that a real partnership is needed (we all know that it takes a whole village to raise a child).
It took us over a year of hard work to get Little M’s confidence back on track and believe me; his confidence was affected in many ways and on many different levels.
At the moment he is braver then he used to be and tries as any other child the hardest he can.
Yes, his profound dyslexia makes all the reading and writing gazillion times more difficult, but at least now he is getting as much support as we can give him. Just think about all those kids who can’t get the support he is getting; all those kids in classrooms sitting silently in fear and full of anxiety, thinking that they must be stupid. Of course, reading and writing are essential but empowering children to shine brightly every day is a life skill that will carry them high through life, and this is vital to building strong, conscious, and independent society.
Shining Bright is my new motto for all the people who have struggled at school or for all the young kids who struggle currently and think they are useless. Everyone has strengths, and it is only a matter of time to get them strong enough to take over the course of our lives so keep on shining bright, keep on pushing even when it’s hard, look for a kind soul who will walk through that journey with you. And keep on shining bright no matter what.

PS.
If you think or feel that your child is not making progress at school, keep at it, don’t let the school tell you that all is fine and your child will catch up (like they did to us). Some kids will catch up, but most kids won’t catch up without some serious help.
To make sure your child shines bright, make sure you find your child’s strengths and focus on that, keep reminding them how beautiful and amazing they are with all their strengths and life skills. Children are very fragile beings, and if we mess them up during their childhood, the consequences will last a lifetime.