Seeing as Christmas is just around the corner, the internet is flooded with videos and messages reminding us of all the well-loved and well-known parts of Christmas. One such video relates to Rudolph, and how this Christmas tale may have panned out if he did not have his distinctive red nose:
Although this video is poking fun at the Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer story, it got me thinking. When teachers and parents deal with kids who are – shall we say – ‘different’ from the norm, are we always trying to get these kids to conform to what is accepted in society?
There are so many different labels to refer to kids who are ‘different’ to the norm, for example “gifted”, “talented”, “special education”, “rebellious”, “goths”, “hippies”, “autistic”, and so on and so forth. What if we could suddenly get all these kids with their alternate ideas to conform to what society views (at the present time) to be “normal”. .. how would this change our world? If the Wright brothers never dreamt of flying, if Edison never thought candles were over-rated, if Einstein did not dream of providing electricity via nuclear power, if Bill Gates stayed in college, if Mother Theresa did not see the poor and needy in the slums of her country, if nobody ever crossed the oceans to look for new land in the times before we knew the earth is not flat, if all of the great inventors and inspiring people mentioned in the history of human kind were somehow forced to conform to the norm, where would humanity be?
I can tell you this much: There would not be human footprints on the moon, and I would not be able to share my thoughts with people from around the globe with just the click of a button.
I want to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas time, and if you don’t celebrate Christmas, enjoy every moment you have with your loved ones…whether they conform to the norm or not!