School Called Me Broken for Collecting Autographs at 12

Ben BeeriBeing a kid, being told that I'm different, thinking that different is bad. Like, different is not a good word, and different means you don't fit in. Different means you have bad intentions. Different means you're in trouble. Seeing that and understanding that there's people going through that right now. There's people in school today that are struggling, really struggling because they're being told that they are something based off of what somebody else decided they are. They're being told that they're not capable without really having ever had a chance to step into what they're capable of, without ever really having their support.

Parents. There's parents out there. Parents of these kids who are having difficulty raising these kids because they haven't seen anything like this before. And now these parents are being told by the school system that your kid's bad. Your kid's never gonna make anything out of themselves. And for you, you need to make sure you discipline these kids. You need to protect other kids from them. Or you need to make sure your kid stays out of the way of everybody else because we have our normal kids, our kids that listen and follow directions and follow the instructions of the teachers.

They want to get their A's in school. They wanna go from elementary school to middle school to high school to college and get their job. And there's nothing wrong with taking that path. But I'm talking to the young students who feel misunderstood and are having that level of difficulty. I'm talking to the parents of those young students that are misunderstood and are having difficulty. And the students have difficulty at times communicating with their parents. I know I did. I had a lot of difficulty communicating with my parents when I was younger, and I never felt like I was understood.

I never felt like they understood what I was going through. I never felt like the teachers understood what I was going through. I never felt like I was the bad kid, but I kept getting in trouble. And with me consistently getting into trouble, I kept feeling like all this evidence was piling up. All this evidence was piling up that really kept saying, hey, there's something wrong with Ben. Like, everything that's going on with Ben is a problem. Like, we're going to teach you something in school. And if you don't pick up on it, memorize it, and iterate it on a test, you're a problem. Go to the office.

The teacher can't rate grade your test the same as the teacher can grade the 19 other kids in class' test. And now that becomes a problem for the teacher. But the truth is is the teacher isn't qualified to teach that student to begin with, that student that has ADHD, AKA me when I was a kid. That wasn't bad. I wasn't looking to cause any trouble. I struggled to find interest in what I was being taught. And I struggled to believe that I should be taught by someone who doesn't actually know the subject they're teaching. Like, you really think about it, the fifth grade teacher who is sitting there in a class and is teaching you math, science, history, English, physical education.

Go to the computer lab. We're having sex education. We're having cultural education. We're going on a field trip to all these different places. Are they really experts in nine different fucking subjects? Like, do they really, really, really know this stuff? Or are they just reading out of a book that somebody else wrote that gives them an an instruction and a standard operating procedure of this is the curriculum that must be taught to the student. And if the student doesn't follow the curriculum exactly the way they should, they're trouble.

And the problem with that is now we have a generation of kids who grew up with the potential to change the world, with the potential to impact the world, with the potential to do some amazing shit, who built up so much evidence when they were younger, that they were bad, that there was something wrong with them, that they were never going to make it in life. Because miss fifth grade teacher said they didn't pass their math or science test. Because they didn't pass it, now they're in trouble. They have to go to the office.

Now the office, the principal is telling the person's parents that, hey, your kid's trouble. They're not getting good grades in school, but the school is not set up to teach those kids. The school is not ensuring or not looking for those kids to succeed. They're just looking to remove those kids so the other 19 kids in the class can learn. So they can go from elementary school to middle school to high school to college to their corporate job, save whatever money they can save in their four zero one k's until they're 65, retire, collect social security payments, and fucking die.

That's it. That's the life that the school system wants for you. And if you as a kid want anything else, if you have a dream, if you have something you're passionate about, they don't care. You're different. And different is a bad thing. That's what they want you to believe. But the thing about being different is being different is really your greatest gift. And it's not only your greatest gift, it's the thing that makes you you. And the thing that makes you you is the thing that ultimately ends up contributing the most to the world.

If you sit there and think about all the most important and impactful people that the world has ever seen, it's because they had a unique gift. You think Michael Jackson was a star student when he went to school? Oh, Michael Jackson, go get your a plus on this science test that we have out. Michael's a troublemaker. Kobe Bryant. You think he was the perfect star student? Like, Kobe didn't go to college. He's terrible. He's not on the right path. He's never gonna make it in life. Kobe had a gift.

And we take these people who have these incredible gifts, And we tell them at a very young age that they shouldn't pursue them because there is a system in place that isn't set up to support these students. Not set up to support these kids. And now these kids are learning from people that are not qualified to teach them. They're teaching them to go on a path that's not fit for them. And the problem we end up with is these kids develop an identity that there's something wrong with them, and there's something bad about them, and that there's something about them that needs to be fixed.

So maybe they act out. Maybe they do get into a place where, hey, they're viewed as troublemakers in school. I know what happened to me. I got to a place when I was in elementary school. I was best friends with the school secretaries because I would go to the office, like, every day. I'd see the principal and he'd sit there and so before they had computers and CRM systems as to student files. It's like he'd pull out note cards and write notes as to what I did to get in trouble on a daily basis. Today, when the bell rang for recess, Ben decided that he wanted to stay and continue to shoot baskets on the basketball court.

What a terrible person he is and how disruptive he is to the rest of the students who are just trying to learn and follow directions. What a terrible person I am, worthy of a lunch detention, an after school detention or a suspension, shooting baskets after the bell rings at recess. Maybe I was just creative and wanted to shoot more baskets so I could get better at basketball because I liked it and it was fun and it didn't stress me out and it didn't make me feel like I was less of a person. Oh, Ben had a terrible, terrible, terrible outcome on his English paper.

Well, maybe I was struggling writing in English because English was my second language. And because I wasn't quite interested in the thing that they were telling us to write about, they would assign us a book to read. And I didn't care to read the book because the book wasn't about a subject that I was interested in. So me now writing the paper gets me a bad grade, which means I'm in trouble. Fast forward to middle school. Now, instead of having somebody who's an expert in five different subjects, math, English, history, science, physical education, they separate the experts.

You only get one period of each expert, aka the teacher you're working with. Then you go to your physical education class, your PE teacher is fat. And the PE teacher, physical education might not be that educated about physical education. Alright, students. Now we're going to go and run a lap around the field. You must maintain this pace. You're sitting there looking at the teacher. It's like, well, I wonder if this person could do it. It's time to do 10 push ups. I wonder if this person can do it.

And the I wonder if this person can do it starts translating from not only physical education, translates to math, translates to science, translates to history, translates to English, and translates to every field in life that's actually important. And the person in life, you start wondering, I wonder if they can do it. About is you. And that's where my focus shifted. I wonder if I can do it. I wonder if I can do it. I wonder if I can do it. And it could be anything. You've got that ADHD kid daydreaming in the fucking classroom they're sitting in.

Anything's a possibility. They have passions. They have dreams. They have things that they're trying to solve in their mind. Their mind never stops. And anything in that moment is important except for what the teacher is saying. What the teacher is saying usually isn't going to have an impact on that person's life. Like, do I really care about what they used to bury in the Great Pyramids Of Egypt? I can just look that up on chat GPT. Like, it's not that important for me to memorize and put on a test.

For me, when I was a kid, I really liked collecting autographs. I thought that was cool. I enjoyed it. Teachers all thought there was something wrong with me. So much so that they encouraged my parents to check out and see what was wrong with me. And parents, I was in seventh grade, put me in for a psychiatric evaluation. And that was about Ben is having problems at school. Ben's interests are interfering with his progress at school and making friends. Ben's interests are collecting autographs from basketball players.

They're interfering with his progress at school. And I sit there and I think about that. After having a business in the autograph and memorabilia field that's ten years old, And I have a lot of sympathy for the kid that's 11 or 12 years old right now and has a passion that they're told that they can't go after. The 11 or 12 year old kid that really is such a light to this world and is on such a great path in life that may just need to be supported differently. And maybe we can start looking at the word different in a positive connotation.

Maybe we can start saying to ourselves, hey, this 11 or 12 year old kid who has ADHD, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, which is like such a fucking superpower. You could sit there and hyper focus on anything you're passionate about. What if I just supported this person differently? What if I let them be creative? What if I let them explore? What if they got to shoot those extra baskets after recess? Does that make them a bad kid? What if they ask the PE teacher to demonstrate what 10 push ups look like?

Does that make them a bad kid? What if them not reading the book that was assigned to them and writing a half assed paper about it gets them a bad grade? Does that make them a bad kid? Or are they just not interested in what they're currently learning? And they have other passions that they're currently focused on. Those other passions that they're currently focused on is what's changing the world right now. Sit there and you think about somebody like Walt Disney and the imagination he had. Think of Disney Channel, Disneyland, Disney, Disney, the name Disney.

The person, Walt Disney. Think of Elon Musk's passion with electric cars. You see Tesla's everywhere. So then you think of AI. If all these people that are passionate about what the possibilities are, they're constantly pushing the edge of what's possible. Steve Jobs, Apple. Like, Steve Jobs known to be the nicest, kindest person in the world. That wasn't his reputation. But Steve Jobs brought us so much. So many of us have an iPhone. We have an Apple computer. We use different Apple products everywhere, headphones, AirPods.

And that all evolved from one man's early vision of having a Macintosh computer. Did it matter what kind of student Steve Jobs was? Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook dropped out of Harvard. Worst decision he ever made or best decision he ever made? And the pattern I see is the people that are doing something on a global scale. The people that are doing something that really contributes to the world helps shape society and shape who we are as people. They're not the kids who grow up going to school, getting an a on every quiz, passing all their classes, going from elementary school to middle school to high school to college to a job, to a retirement at 65 with a full four zero one k, to the day they die.

And I see that, and I think to myself, what if, just what if that kid had support? And that's been on my heart lately. That's been heavy on my heart because I want to see those kids receiving the support that they deserve. I wanna see those kids being in a place where they are encouraged to explore their creativity. I wanna see those kids in a place where we are not giving them false ideas about what their identity is. And I wanna see those kids feel less alone and feel less misunderstood. Feel like the feeling of feeling misunderstood and feeling alone as a kid. It's not good for you.

I know for me, I would walk into a class when I was in middle school, when I was in high school, and I knew that if there's 20 kids in a class, there is Ben, and there's 19 other kids. And I'm not like any of them. I am not like any of the other kids. Is there even a point in me trying to make friends? Would anybody even want to be my friend if I gave them the opportunity to be my friend? Yes, I want friends. We all want friends. We all want to be loved. We all want to be understood. But all of a sudden, anytime I would put in an effort, I would either get rejected or I'd be in a place where people like, this is the weird kid. Stay away from him.

And being in a place where the teachers, they like you even less than the students because you're making their job more difficult. And usually the people who teach those classes, They don't do that at a high level to begin with. If they were knowledgeable about the field that they were in, they'd be in that field. The teacher teaching you science in elementary school would be in some kind of scientific field. They were an expert at it. Your physical education teacher would be in shape and be easily able to demonstrate any activity that they request you do as a kid. If they knew about the field of physical education, your math teachers would know how to do math.

Your English teachers, well, they'd know how to write. How many English teachers have written a book? How many of them have written a book? How many elementary, middle or high school teachers have written a book? If the answer is no and they have not written a book, are they qualified to grade our paper and grade our writing? Do they know about our writing? Do they know what proper writing is? And that brings the question, I wonder if they can, which leads to the question of, I wonder if I can. And looking at it now from a lens of a 30 year old man who's been in business for ten years in the field I was passionate about as a kid that I was put in a psychiatric evaluation for and subsequently kicked out of school for a year later, I sit there and I think of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 year old kid today.

That applies to 15, 16, 17, and 18 year old kids as well. And that also applies to the younger kids, The younger kids that are getting treated difficult. The five, six, seven, eight and nine year olds. I wonder what they're capable of. If they get the support that they need, not the support that the school system says they should have, because the school system just wants to get rid of these kids because they don't fit inside the box, inside the parameters that they dictate for them. And they ultimately don't get support.

They get left out to dry, and they get put in a place where they don't get to wonder. They don't get to wonder what's possible for them because they're just busy surviving every day. And we want those kids to wonder because those are the kids that are gonna change the world.