Take Amazing Risks

“To do amazing things you have to take amazing risks and suffer greatly,” said Zeynep, his five-year old genius friend in Bursa, Turkey.

 “Here,” she said, “many a-dolts stay with their mothers forever and a day because they are afraid of freedom and accepting responsibility for their lives.

“They eat fear morning noon and night. They are afraid to speak their honest feelings, to express their innate desire for independence.

“Learned helplessness. They are willing victims of traditional conservative attitudes and values. Free will is a foreign language. They are scared of taking risks, letting go and growing. I may grow old but I’ll never grow up. If I grow up I die.”

“I feel the same way.”

One day while sharing lunch and drawing in notebooks, Lucky said, “When I was nine I was going on 50. Now I am 50 going on nine. I exist outside adult time.”

“We are passing through,” Zeynep said lighting a candle in darkness.

After Ankara he’d accepted a new adventure in Bursa. This shocked everyone in the capital lower case. They assumed he’d stay with them forever. Students and teachers celebrated his transition with a sparkling cake. Women cried sadness and joy.

“We are not here for a long time, we are here for a good time,” said Sappho the poetess.

One adult student who’d articulated her desire to move to Constantinople during the Ottoman Empire seeking an educational engineering job in a quality control factory school producing obedient robotic idiot children and live with her boyfriend cowered behind her futile quest for independence from over-protective parents. “My father won’t let me.”

Oh the shame.

“Take control of your life. Get a grip. Let go. Jump. Discover courage and your wings on the way down.”

The Language Company

Take amazing risks

We begin the final "test" portion for G4 kids today. Speaking. They have five topics.

They present in groups of three and the audience asks them questions, follow-up questions and curious questions about unique proteins found in the venom of Komodo dragons.

1. What is a rain forest? Why are they important?

2. Name some jobs people do in Indonesia.

3. Imagine you are a tourist. What would you like to know about a place?

4. You are planning a vacation to a new place this summer. What do you need to know? Talk about five ideas.

5. How can you learn about the past, about history?

6. Random bonus questions, like:

"Talk about the coolest thing you did in school this year."

"How does making a mind map help your intellect and creative instinct?"

"What is the difference between a fact and an opinion?"

"Explain your values on friendship."

"Is imagination more important than knowledge?"

Metta.