An elderly lady once told me that she will not allow her grandchild to participate in any non-academic based activities.
No singing, story telling or dancing. Her reason, such activities are waste of time and energy. An unnecessary foray into situations that could involve child safety risks.
On the other hand, I specifically asked teachers of my kids to consider them for any activities, even those that they might not appear to be good in initially.
What they need is opportunity – to discover and polish their talents and abilities, natural or trained.
What they get is self confidence – something they gained through these experiences.
A proven case for my eldest daughter, so far. She did rather poorly in the first few stage performances in her first year of school. But she improved through continuous opportunities which eventually led to the crowning glory of her Kindergarten year – chosen to give the graduation speech.
She has talents like most kids. But more importantly, she was given plenty and a variety of opportunities to find and refine them.
