What is your Element?

I’ve been rereading the book The Element by Ken Robinson. To be fair, I haven’t read it, but rather listened to it. However, listening to it gave me so much inspiration that I bought the hardcopy and now I’m going through it and underlining everything I find important and inspirational. There’s a lot to underline, highlight, dogear, and flag!

There were two major things that struck me in my reading.

1. We have no idea of what the future holds as far as opportunity, especially with the incredible technological advances we are currently living through.
2. The best way to navigate this is through finding your Element and learning to use that to adapt.

I am fortunate. I love learning. I am constantly learning and reading new books. I regularly have a variety of books I’m either reading or listening to. My favorite topics are health, education, and personal development. I occasionally read fiction as well, but I rarely find fiction that engages me the way the other books do.

At 51 years old, I found what I believe is my Element. Writing and speaking.

It’s kind of crazy because one of the reasons I dropped out of school was because I failed my English classes. I hated reading and writing. At least I thought I did. It’s one reason I give my kids who aren’t interested in reading and writing grace.
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A few years ago, my wife and I opened a wellness clinic. When we launched, we held an event where we gave a presentation. Actually I gave the presentation. She’s a doctor and the primary thing we were selling was her services, but she hates public speaking and freezes up when she has to speak to more than one person at a time.

I gave a presentation and when we were finished I not only received a round of applause, I was on a high for days afterwards.

Following that, I started looking for opportunities to speak again. I was accepted into a speech contest and joined Toastmasters. I love Toastmasters. My speeches are almost always well received (I’m still learning), but I have found I have a natural aptitude for speaking in public and conveying my thoughts. It’s what I want to do more than anything else.

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But I don’t want to be just another public speaker so I also study improv and comedy. I often have my funny moments, but I’ve learned that even the greats don’t necessarily just start out funny.
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I’ve been reading and/listening to books by famous performers. Recently I have read both Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama by Bob Odenkirk, and Bossypants by Tina Fey. One thing I’ve learned is that although they had an aptitude for comedy, there was a lot of skill development involved. In comedy, Robin Williams is the exception. Most performers don’t start out funny, they develop their skills. Steve Martin’s book was particularly enlightening.

That’s enough about me, I’m writing this about the Element.

I believe it is my mission in life to help people, especially those kids who the system tells them there’s something wrong with them if they can't do well in school, find their Element.

“Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it’s stupid.” ~ Albert Einstein (maybe)

This past weekend, my son, who seems to be particularly unmotivated to do anything but play video games, expressed that he might want to be a marine biologist. We started talking and he wants to swim with manatees and sea lions, and wants to learn to SCUBA. So I am going to get him into SCUBA classes and we are in the process of planning trips to Florida and La Paz, Mexico.

There is an island off the coast of La Paz called Espiritu Santo that is a popular destination for snorkeling with sea lions. And that area of the Sea of Cortez was apparently Jaques Cousteau’s favorite place in the world. He called it the “World’s Aquarium.”
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The only way to truly allow people to find their Element is to expose them to those things they may show an aptitude for. And our system not only doesn’t expose people to the world of possibilities out there, it suggests that if you don’t perform well in the narrow range of opportunities presented, you likely won’t be “successful.”

So that’s going to be my method in the school I’m creating. I want to help these boys find their Element. I want to allow them maximum autonomy in doing it. I want them to know that whatever they are interested in, I will help them find more information on how to learn it. And I want them to know if they follow something and it doesn’t stick, that’s ok, we’ll keep looking.
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The thing I think people get wrong is that if we don’t force them to learn certain things, they won’t be able to do the things that they are interested in. As I shared, I thought I couldn’t write, but when I went back to school in my early 30s, I was regularly commended on my writing ability. I wanted to be there and I was able to choose topics I was interested in and I excelled.

I believe everyone will when they find what they want to do. They just need to be given the opportunity to find what they want to do. And you can’t find the opportunity to find that if you don’t have the opportunity to be exposed to things.
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One of my favorite movies I’ve seen since starting our homeschool journey is called Class Dismissed. It shows kids who aren’t really doing well in school, but are given the opportunity to explore their interests. It’s really a great movie and I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it.
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I’m looking at a few locations for the school this week. I may have found one, but I need a backup and so tomorrow I’m taking a look at a place here in Goodyear.

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And if one of the locations goes through I am considering offering a few summer camps on 3D printing, physics, and “tinkering/making.”
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Everyone is creative, but many people don’t know how they can be creative, so the plan is to start with offering some summer camps with classes on creativity in tech. Sort of like a mobile, temporary makerspace until I can get the official makerspace established.

Until next week! I can’t wait to give you an update. I’m confident that one of the locations will work out. Keep learning, take time to create something, and give your kids some grace. And encourage them to do the same! We all need it.

Dave