The Spark

I found The Spark interesting for a few reasons.  Here they are in no particular order:

- Geniuses, especially child geniuses, are fascinating to me for the things they can do that are way beyond the rest of us.  The abilities this boy had as a young child were extraordinary and are still extraordinary as he grows up.

- His mother chose not to believe the experts who were certain her child could learn to do not much more than tie his shoes.  She was right.  The experts were wrong.  What does that tell us about how seriously we should take the pronouncements of experts?

- His mother came up with her own program for her son as well as for other kids.  Without special education training (which did the experts no good), she was able to mainstream her own and other children into kindergarten.

- The mother encouraged her son to pursue his passion while making sure he did kiddie things too and developing his social abilities.

It's reminiscent of Son-Rise, a book from the 80's, about a family who also devise their own program for their son in which they enter his world, rather than attempt to draw him out of his own world.  There too, there was a happy ending in that their son emerged and left his diagnosis of autism behind.