Genius

 

Genius

‘Genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.’ Amelia E. Barr (1831-1919)

It is the quintessence of optimism, and it would be most encouraging if it could be proved true. It assumes that all a person needs to succeed is determination or perhaps it is enough for another person to believe strongly enough in you.

That was certainly the case for Thomas Edison, the inventor who held more than 1090 patents in the United States alone. Among his inventions was the phonograph, in 1877, the first device able to record and play back sound. He also developed the motion picture camera and the first long-lasting incandescent light bulb. The first light bulbs were created by Humphry Davy in 1802, Heinrich Göbel in 1854, and Joseph Swan, who later worked with Edison.

Thomas Edison was the seventh and youngest child of his family, a curious and inquisitive boy. One day, when he was seven years old, he returned from school with a note for his mother. She read it out to him: ‘Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself.’

From that point, the young boy was taught at home by his mother. Years later, after his mother had died, he found the note in a drawer. Unfolding it, he read: ‘Your son is addled. We won’t let him come to school anymore.’

Edison was shocked and cried for a long time and then he recorded in his diary the following words: ‘Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century.’

That is a splendid story, based on fact, but inaccurate. Edison disliked his crowded one-room school and his teacher. His teacher reprimanded him for being addled, or mentally ill, and he flounced home. It is believed now that he was dyslexic, a condition not then recognised, or for many decades afterwards.

Under his mother’s tutelage, Thomas flourished.

How many other young lives have been blighted by the misunderstanding or impatience of teachers?