When difference and giftedness are embraced equally

When giftedness and difference are embraced, equally.

I just came from the alternative school. I was with my baby (10 months) in the class of my Charles (7 years old) who tells me every day tenderly with his eyes filled with love and sweetness how much he likes me to be there.
Every day that I have been here, since the beginning of this school, I have witnessed completely different situations, all moving.

So here is my accompaniment this morning, while baby plays with the dog Mira (or is it Coca who plays with baby?) and marvels at so many children (I relive the beautiful song: when Louis was only 6 years old and Charles, a few months old, accompanied me there), the wonderful attentive teacher suggests that this time I be with a more gifted child, we talk less about giftedness but those who already know how to read and count in first grade must also be interested and invested. So I was to suggest projects to him that match his autonomy and the color of his interests, he is captured by everything that touches nature.
I am then drawn to a child whose sadness attracts the sympathy of the older ones (the classes are multi-age). The older ones do not laugh or abuse the younger ones. They like to learn by helping. So the sadness came from a mistake made. The teacher leans into this child's difference and surrounds him with warmth, I obviously have a tear in my eye because we know that too often children can suffer from their "delays" when compared to others, when graded in relation to others, when subjected to exams that highlight the shortcomings more. And if he were just like that, wearing smaller shoes. He has his own talents and obviously his place in society. And he is loved and embraced in this way.

I go downstairs filled with emotion and stop because we're dancing not far from there, English and music classes together, parents witnessing here too and baby captured, he loves that we sing and dance. I take the opportunity to tell the English teacher that my Louis, now in secondary school, receives nothing but praise from his new English teacher because he can communicate with her so comfortably, he who in second grade was so shy. He acquired this ease encouraged by Liel's guitar and by dint of learning by playing and singing, because we can learn while having fun. It seems that we adults have forgotten it. The enthusiasm for learning is innate. Long live the difference, no to performance, yes to surpassing, to investment and pleasure and let's love our children as they are.