The Kindergarten Teacher

Watched this wonderful movie a few days ago about a kindergarten teacher who goes a bit too far to nurture the talents of her precocious five year old student. Her degree of obsession with the kid is almost creepy but not impossible to understand. Lisa Spinelli, the kindergarten teacher wants to raise Mozart who is all but set to wither away to nothingness in his surroundings. She wishes to be the architect of his destiny, channel his genius for poetry. 

No one sees in Jimmy what she does - atleast not with the same ferocious intensity. There is no cause in her life quite as worthy, no vessel (including her own children) with the capacity to hold all she has to offer. And yet, things do not end well for Lisa and one can assume Jimmy never ends up being all that he had potential to be - because there is no Miss Spinelli to shine the floodlight on his talents. 

We have all seen a few kids in our lives who have amazing potential. Some we grew up with, others we saw alongside our own kids from a parent's vantage point. The tragedy of unrealized genius has touched many of us even if only at tangent. I could imagine Jimmy as a composite of every talented kid I have known that did not have anyone in their life recognize and champion it - in them there is the music that never got made, the stories that never got written, inventions that did not see light of day and businesses that never got founded. 

Every once in a while genius finds an unexpected conduit. My childhood friend who may have been great enough to be a Michelin star chef owns a small bake-shop, she creates spectacular pieces of art with fondant and makes a lot of people very happy. Lisa is called a dilettante not an artist by her poetry teacher in the movie - like it were an insult. Yet that is what it takes to nurture genius - being able to recognize the signs.