Things that do MORE HARM than GOOD

Among the many things that will mess you up in your journey through life is the opinions of others. Take them too seriously, and you are a guaranteed failure. Thomas Edison was considered "addled" by the headmaster of his school. His mother home-schooled him and the rest is history. Paul McCartney was not good enough to play or sing in his high school, according to his music teacher. No need to go further, the examples are TNTC (too numerous to count.)

Wayne Dyer, a smart guy, says "Your opinion of me is none of my business." Start with this premise and you are more likely to be a successful person, in the arts, or business, or just about anywhere in life. Accept the opinion of everyone and you can achieve mediocrity. We are the grandparents of two very active and brilliant 2 year old twin girls. On the spectrum of expressing their individuality and not being overly constrained to.... follow all the rules and get along through the cookie cutter process you will meet in school and society, I am glad to say that they are more creative and less programmed. It's not that they throw things in restaurants, it's just that they have minds of their own and do things to test cause and effect that would not pass muster in kindergarten, where going along is as Vince Lombardi said about winning.."it's not the most important thing, it's the ONLY thing."

Some of my favorite authors espouse "not going along." Thoreau wrote "On Civil Disobedience. " Don Miguel Ruiz wrote about "hooking the attention of the child" and enculturation into the Dream of the Planet. Again, the authors and philosophers are TNTC. And let's not forget that Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to pursue his dream and history indicates he made the right choice.

I am not advocating being a class-clown or a slacker who just wants to squander all educational opportunity. But be careful out there. The prime directive of most education is not to make you different or uniquely successful but rather to make you the same, and to "fit in" and not rock the boat of society. This is why we have public education, to control the masses, not produce excellence. You just have to look at the results to see that. And it is getting worse.