Rhys Maston, last year’s Australia’s X Factor winner, sang to me  on the radio as I was driving home from the movies with Kalyra the other day.

Only 16, an amazing voice, a rock star future without a doubt on the cards for him.

“I wonder if he has left school now as a result.”

It led me to wonder about child prodigies; those who have always known what they wanted to do and they achieve it long before school is over.

Do they still get their certificate or are they considered drop outs?

I’m pretty sure I know what the answer would be, labelled as drop outs.

The absurdity of this statement grew in my mind and led me to think all sorts of things.

What is the purpose of school?

Is it to have us rote learn certain topics so at the end of it we receive a certificate that says,

“Congratulations, your memory is sharp. We’re not sure what you will do with the rest of your life now, because that is not our concern. We’re not concerned with helping you to discover and pursue your passions, we’re only concerned with helping you pass the tests and get the jobs?”

Schools aren’t really pushing for extraordinary results by way of your dreams.

School fails miserably at helping our children become extraordinary and punishes those who do.

I am sure that Rhys doesn’t need a school certificate as his future is pretty easy to predict. Hopefully he receives guidance from those well versed in financial education to help him learn how to manage his money and career. He doesn’t have to worry about missing that knowledge in school, because they don’t teach it.

Funny that, the stuff kids really need to know!

People like Rhys should be given a certificate in lieu. They shouldn’t have to sit the bullshit tests in order to get one because they have achieved what the majority of people who finish school never do.

LIVING THEIR DREAM

They know that there passion is and where their talents lie. They have cultivated it;  practiced, worked hard, believed and risen to the top. They live their life on purpose and even though they are teenagers they can teach us so much.

The schools should be saying, “Congratulations you have passed.”

And hand them a certificate with the words emblazoned in Gold

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

I read in Dave Grohl’s biography recently that he left school at 16 in a rock band to tour Europe.

His Mom said that she knew school could never give him what he needs to live his purpose and have a fulfilled life. She believed in him and knew his dream could not be stopped. She knew the importance of life is to cultivate the dream.

Dave Grohl, a musical genius, was a high school dropout.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

If he stayed in school his dreams, his talent, his drive, his creativity probably would have all been squashed down to ordinary.

I’m not saying that everyone who has a dream to be a rock star, or anything else extraordinary, should quit school.

You have to want to be extraordinary first and then you have to act in extraordinary ways. The drive, the talent, the opportunities, have to all be extraordinary or else quitting school early could be a bad move.

But for those few who can live their dream before the rest of us, they should be applauded by the school departments. The schools themselves should be applauding themselves for doing the job right for once.

Except they probably really didn’t have much of a hand in it to begin with.

Note: I wrote this post last year, but thought it was still relevant esp given the number of teen stars that seem to be on X-Factor this year!