Not-the-norm.

"No child is born to conform to a norm!"

Every child is different, be it because of a special need or a unique talent,
a particular handicap or a specific ability, an outstanding ​accomplishment 
or a call for help, an ​exceptional ambition or a rare ​condition.

The real opportunities are all too often outside the box.

​Whenever your kids' best interests don't fit into established norms and standards, 
you'll find possible solutions amongst your Global Native partner families.

And here's why: Not-the-norm kids are the overwhelming majority.  Not-the-norm is normal.

Nine out of ten kids (the same goes for adults, of course) don't conform to supposed standards.
So these standards can't be all that relevant, you might think, right? Yet, they are extremely tough to challenge.

Instead of fighting a lonely struggle or - even worse - giving up, Global Natives take the initiative.
Whatever opportunity you long to create or solution you're looking for: There are many families in the community who have an idea and quite likely an answer. They've seen the same dilemmata, have experienced the same refusals and have overcome the same institutionalized "no, you can't" barriers.
Family partnerships allow for opposites to attract and for kindred spirits to connect, to switch the city for the countryside and the mountains for the sea. A great match can motivate your kid to dive into a familiar subject with a vengeance, or to opt for something completely new with vigour and motivation. 
Family partnerships cater for the unique situations in life, they are eye-openers
for kids who need a bit of encouragement to pursue a more ambitious goal - 
​like Eddie's story here!
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Every strength and weakness, personal ability and challenge of every family member can (it is an option, not a requirement) have a place in the Haves-and-Wants profiles. That's how an autistic child or a teenager in a wheelchair finds access to just as many opportunities as the highly gifted and the exceptionally ambitious kids in the community! 
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Not-the-norm? Like what? Well, for instance ...

Like having an IQ of 142 and a learning problem. All too often, very bright kids have a hard time fitting into daily school routines. +++ Or like being blessed with an exceptional musical talent but too little self-confidence. Some flowers need a special climate to flourish! +++ Many kids have the talent to pick up languages quickly, but their poor school performance in STEM subjects prevents them from getting the much-hoped-for opportunity to go abroad for a year. +++ Or what about Timothy: He wanted to be a soccer pro in the Netherlands and no club would have him, he's simply too short. He went to Chile for a year. Meanwhile, his Spanish has become quite fluent, he's playing successfully in a league two club in Peru and will be able to go to university in Lima. +++ Lilo had a stutter and was convinced that acting would help her overcome it. But no acting society would give her a try. The partnership with a family in London with a long family history of speech impediments was her salvation. They had all the relevant contacts, took her in as an exchange student and had her on a stage very soon. The experiment worked well for Lilo. +++ Benjy's dad is a bricklayer, his grandfather was a bricklayer too. Benjy doesn't have anyone in the extended family who has ever seen a university from the inside, so none of his teachers expected him to even think of it. But he did, and he's an architect now. All along, he had encouragement and backing from his partner family in Tel Aviv. They, too, have a long family history in the building business and have over the generations covered all aspects of the trade. +++ Another way of falling out of the norm is being kid number seven out of nine. Many countries have application forms that won't even consider large families, let alone their budgets.

It is a joy to enable and strengthen the "the original child" instead of creating a standardized version,
celebrating the world's not-the-norm children and raising a generation of independent minds.

Finally, here's the most fateful norm of all - the price tag

We firmly believe that many of today's education systems have reached their expiry date. 
They waste way too much potential. ​ Waste that society can no longer afford! ​
The most harmful waste lies in the tremendous cost of good education.
This barrier keeps millions of kids from ever being able to contribute to the common good.
That's why we urge politicians to take a closer look at the countries offering free access to schools and universities. 
​It always pays off. Meanwhile, family partnerships open up a wide range of alternatives.
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Family partnerships have brought twelve-year-old Ken from the beaches of Greenland to the beaches of Greece; fourteen-year-old Milla from Finland with her exceptional love for Latin and Old Greek into the mentorship of a Cambridge professor; Ben from Stewart Island, NZ, to the Academy of Music for the Blind in L.A.; Emiko from Matsuyama into an equally talented family of avid chess players in Sydney and nineteen-year-old Johan from the Danish countryside to learn the craft of crystal cutting in the Tyrolean Alps.
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Please browse through the case studies to see
​the tremendous spectrum of possibilities!

​To get an idea on the bandwidth of our diversity, please visit the story book!
But first, enjoy 6 minutes of young wisdom as a self-confident testimonial for not-the-norm power:
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