Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Do we dare disrupt the order of the world?

Kids who demonstrate potential are chosen for opportunities to realize their ambitions, while other kids languish, surrounded by latent possibilities. What would happen if we chose not the first who came to mind but the second or the third child and gave the opportunity to that one instead. In what way might we disrupt the order of the world and for what good?

I recently finished reading Gladwell's Outliers in which he talked, among other topics, about the advantages that some kids have as they grow up, because of when they were born or where they lived or who they knew. What struck me clearly was that many students are denied the opportunities to fully realize their potential. They get passed over in school because they don't show the right character.

The movie Moneyball touched upon this. Players were passed over because they were too old or because they had an ugly girlfriend. People made superficial judgments that denied others opportunities to realize their potential.

The thing I'm driving at is that we need to give a kid a chance, not just the kid who looks the way we think a kid should look, but every kid. Every kid needs a chance. Every kid needs a break. Every kid needs an opportunity to realize what he can be.