Admittedly, I chalked her up to the school-isn’t-foreveryone
category. But school can be for everyone. Our
current school system perhaps just isn’t for everyone.
What my daughter did love to spend her time on, and
the reason she rushed through her schoolwork, was so
she could play. She loved to craft and invent things.
Her latest project, which has taken up the greater part
of our garage, was building an airport out of cardboard.
From the moment she woke up until she went to bed,
she was laser-focused for days. The girl who shunned
even minor discomfort suddenly worked tirelessly in
the sweltering sun. She found eating a nuisance. And
instead of struggling to find ways to fill her day, there
simply wasn’t enough hours in the day.
In recent past, I would’ve lectured her to do something
useful with her time alongside playing, like practicing
violin or working on her multiplication workbooks. But
thanks to the recent epiphany I had while researching
for this article, I had the wherewithal to understand
she was doing something useful with her time! She
was inventing, designing, constructing, persisting,
utilizing geometry, ergonomics, physics, and learning
to be resourceful. When she exhausted the cardboard
supply in our house, she started to ask her neighbors if
they had cardboard they could spare. I lauded the efforts
I hoped she would repeat and finally supported her play
time. I scoured the house for cardboard and parked our
cars on the street temporarily so she could utilize the
garage. Children aren’t averse to hard work. They’re
averse to meaningless busywork.•
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