Childhood Talent Imprisoned In A “It’s For Your Good”
Talent is that intellectual capacity or ability that leads us to carry out an activity with particular dexterity. When we tell someone that he is talented, what we want to tell him is that he is very good at doing something and, furthermore, that we see him passionate and capable of going all out.
It is very easy for people older than us to observe our innate talents. There are children who do not stop drawing, others run and jump, others like to admire insects, etc.
The problem arises when these abilities, so “ours”, are forbidden to us, because they are useless, neither to the rest of the world nor to us. Or so they tell us.
When we are little, we blindly believe everything they tell us. We are innocent beings, with little ability to say what we want or don’t want to do with our lives and, in the end, many of us end up in the trap of cultural and social imposition, losing our essence.
The school as we know it is part of a system configured with a specific thematic selection, common to all children. At school, homework is carried out that assess the children’s ability to accomplish something, something that perhaps they are not the least bit interested in. This philosophy, in addition to being very unfair, is an expert in mowing down talents.
It is only when there is something that does not interest him or for which he is not suited that we have him accompanied by support professors or we take him to “repetitions”. Isn’t that absurd?
“It’s for your own good …”
It is clear that both educators and parents want the best for their children and that they are full of good intentions. Sometimes, however, the fear that their child may not enjoy a promising future or that they may not become a successful person is so great that they do nothing but demotivate the child, leading him onto a career path that he will hate.
As adults today, many of us don’t know what we love and what we don’t. We have set the autopilot; elementary school, high school, university … And now? When it is time to enter the world of work we realize that that thing is not for us, that we have trained ourselves in something we do not excel at or that we simply do not like what we do.
In theory we are where we are “for our own good”, but what happened to our dreams? Did we trade them for a permanent job?
If we are lucky enough to realize this relatively soon, perhaps as adults we can remedy and start developing those talents that have remained imprisoned in our souls but wish to free themselves.
Many people wait for retirement to start doing the things they did when they were little, those that ruffle their spirits: living in the midst of nature, doing manual jobs, learning to play, etc. But it is a real shame that we cannot enjoy a whole life doing these things, for the mere fear of not being able to live a worthy life, as that little voice recorded by our subconscious told us.
Cultivate your children’s talent and, if you can, yours too
The best gift a parent can give to their child is to genuinely appreciate their talent. Everyone is born with a gift and that is the aspect in which parents have to support the little ones. Stop getting angry because your child is in an earthquake and does nothing but run and jump at all times. Maybe it’s time to sign him up for some sport where he can develop his skills.
When a child realizes that his parents support his skills, his self-esteem grows, like whipping cream. Children always wait for parental approval; they need it to make sure what they love to do is right.
Feeling appreciated and seeing that what is spontaneous to them is valued provokes in the little ones a sense of self-realization that helps them not to get carried away by the thought “when I grow up I should be …”.
We are not telling you to stop your children from studying or not to teach them things that can be valuable for a lifetime. Every teaching, well imparted, enriches. However, you must also know how to appreciate and value in a special way their deepest talents, encourage them to improve, to challenge themselves, to overcome themselves and, why not, to live by this gift.
If, on the other hand, you are reading this article and feel represented, perhaps it is time to get your talents out of the closet. Do not think about what they will tell you, because there will surely be someone who will come up with phrases like “but that thing is useless”, “it will not give you a future”, “it is very hard to make a living like this”, etc.
Don’t worry, success lies in perseverance. If you are constant in doing what excites you, there will come a time when you will make your dreams come true or at least you will come very close to them.
The point is that we are not used to being guided for long by hedonism and we give up too soon, almost always influenced by those around us. However, we still have time to develop our talent, to show the world what lives inside us, what we have to give and contribute.
