A friend recently sent me a story on WhastApp about Thomas
Alva Edison and how he had received a letter from his school teacher which he was
to show to his mother. The mother read out the letter to the young Edison,
“Your son is a genius. The school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough
good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself.” Years later, after his mother died, Edison learnt
of the true contents of that letter, “You son is addled (mentally ill). We
won’t let him come to school any more”. Edison broke down and wept for hours. Later,
he wrote in his diary, “Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero
mother, became the genius of the century”.
It was a powerful story and one that evoked a complex mix of
emotions within me. Edison was dyslexic, as was later discovered, but what
struck me about this story was the way his mother handled that insensitive
teacher’s letter.
As a mother she must have felt deep anguish, pain and
empathy for her child’s mental condition, and must have struggled with a
mother’s anger and humiliation at an outsider pointing it out so brutally to
her.
As I read this message early this morning, I glanced across
at my almost-11 year old son sleeping in his bed, as usual all curled up and
having reached the other side of the bed during the night. My son has always
been good in studies as well as sports and other extra-curricular activities. I
have become almost accustomed to hearing praises from all his teachers, right
from when he was in playschool.
That message got me thinking. How would I have reacted had I
received such a letter? Knowing my rather short fuse and the harsh words that
ensue when anger has me in its grip, I cringed inwardly as I imagined the
scenario. Me yelling and my son cringing and probably dissolving in tears and
an overall depressing, painful ambience. I shook my head and pulled myself out
of the unappealing spiral of imagination.
Edison went on to invent the electric bulb and today school
books have GK quizzes about him. If a person (adult or child alike) does not
know who invented the light bulb, they are looked at strangely and then pitied
for their ignorance.
As a parent, our reactions can leave either lasting damage
on a child’s psyche or lead to permanent edification.
What would have happened had Edison’s mother ranted and
raved at him? Had she taken out her frustration and humiliation on that
already-suffering child? Bewilderment at his mother’s inexplicable rage would
have probably pushed him into a shell or would have turned him hostile and
probably a delinquent.
But, the wise woman did nothing of the above. She told him a
lie, true – but a lie that saved him and moulded his life which the harsh truth
could have never ever achieved.
A lie that would light
up the world for all time to come.
