Endless Potential

What do you see when you see a child?

I’ll be honest; I do look at my children and also the most perfect grandchild ever, Atticus, differently than I do others. (Yes, that gorgeous child in the photo is our grandson.) However, I also often have the opportunity to see some of the 50+ children we serve here in our Child Development Center. And what do I see? I see endless potential. I see eyes filled with anticipation: anxious to learn, anxious to know that someone is interested in them and their future, anxious to soak up all of the opportunities we are willing to give them.

Before I go on, check out this video:

No, really, go ahead. I’ll wait………….

Marshalltown, Iowa recently began a process to ensure that all children are able to read at grade level by the end of third grade. This would be a monumental and exciting accomplishment. An article was published in that community’s local paper about the effort. Here is one of the comments that article received:
“Look, some kids are just born smarter and more motivated. The ones who don’t cut the mustard in school can cut my lawn. They’ll never do anything more important than that and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Concentrate on the good ones and make servants out of the rest. “
Believe me folks; I don’t make this stuff up.

Children, along with being in general a lot of fun, are treasures. They hold our future. And that future is absolutely dependant on how we treat these treasures today. A brilliant man once said “…where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” As a society where is our treasure? Don’t we invest in things we really believe in? If we don’t believe in the massive potential of our children that might be evidenced by the way we treat them, the way we value them, the way we invest in them.

An interesting factoid: some states utilize 3rd grade reading rates as a way to project how many prison beds they will need in the future.

Again, I don’t make this stuff up.

I don’t know about you, but I would much rather invest in endless potential than prison beds.