Child Prodigies

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

Referencing the column last week: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991210.html

Quite apart from the issue of whether or not Mr. Sidis was ‘successful,’ the article does point out a different issue that always bothers me when I see examples of it. Specifically, why is it that some people seem to believe that extra talent has to be developed as soon as possible?

Take a Mozart. Now, it is quite astounding how early young Mozart was playing and composing. I suppose there was no stopping him, in reality. But was it really necessary for his Da to push him along so quickly? He was a musical genius, and one assumes would have been as much a musical genius had he been allowed to study at a later date.

Nevertheless, we often see parents take children who demonstrate extra innate ability and push them to develope that ability as rapidly as possible. This often (to my mind) manages to totally destroy any natural development of SOCIAL behaviour on the part of the child, and often seems to leave such children in the long run without the ability to cope with society.

Assume that you have the second coming of Cecil. Do you really have to push him into proving his uncanny ability to correct all that is incorrect at the age of 11?

2

If I coulda known then what I know now… imagine how screwed up I’d be.

There is some justification to the idea to push 'em when they’re young. Children seem more able to learn certain things than adults - think how easily children pick up languages. You can teach a child 6 languages by inundating them. Whereas you inundate an adult with 6 languages and they’ll just get pissed. :wink:

That said, I think it is unfair to shortchange the social development on the basis of “intellectual ability” or whatever. Though it is hard to determine just what the right mix is. Do you subject a very bright and quick student to the slow, plodding of a typical elementary school class just so they can stay with their “peers”? What if that bores them to the point they give up on learning and don’t try? Or learn bad habits about not trying, and later don’t know how to apply themselves? Plus, I think a really bright student is going to be ostracized anyway, regardless of if they are kept in the class or promoted to advanced levels. I wish I had a solution - it would have been nice about 20 years ago.

Some of it has to do with living vicariously, or using the kid as a trophy. Some of it is a desire to see their kid get the best and make the best of himself. There does seem to be a pattern of burnout associated with the prodigies.

3

Being one of these bright children who got bored in school, I have a few ideas. They may not seem useful in another five years when I have kids, but now they make sense to me.

Show your child everything, and make information easy to find. This is the encyclopedia argument.

When you show them a neat thing, like a great concert pianist, explain some of the neater things about it, like the structure of Motzart’s music, and some basics. If they see a page of sribblings from a mathmetician, explain the sort of things you can do with higher mathemitcs, and how it’s all derived from fairly basic operations.

If they’re capable, they’ll prove it by latching onto something and wanting to learn everything you can teach them. Teach them, but keep it fun. Don’t press them to learn something ‘important’ unless it expands their ability to understand. For instance, teach a kid about multiplication early, because math makes more sense, don’t bother with square roots until they need them, as they’re overly complex (how to calculate them) for a beginner.

An example. When I was young, my dad saw my interest in math, and related problems to real life on the farm. He’d tell me to figure out the area of the garden, to calculate how much plastic we’d need, and when I had tried and was having a hard time brute-forcing it, he’d show me how multiplication would work to do the same, and I’d run back and try it, then when he bought the plastic he’d give me the money he’d “saved” by using my calculations to spend on candy. Was a great incentive. Same sort of thing all the way up to trig, for figuring out the height of trees before we got there to cut them down, and other things.

Where it goes wrong is like with skating moms, pressing their (usually) daughters into figure skating, because it’s something they wanted to be good at when they were young. Even if the kids show an interest, it’s likely most don’t really want to spend six hours a day practicing.

4

Being one of these bright children who got bored in school, I have a few ideas. They may not seem useful in another five years when I have kids, but now they make sense to me.

Show your child everything, and make information easy to find. This is the encyclopedia argument.

When you show them a neat thing, like a great concert pianist, explain some of the neater things about it, like the structure of Motzart’s music, and some basics. If they see a page of sribblings from a mathmetician, explain the sort of things you can do with higher mathemitcs, and how it’s all derived from fairly basic operations.

If they’re capable, they’ll prove it by latching onto something and wanting to learn everything you can teach them. Teach them, but keep it fun. Don’t press them to learn something ‘important’ unless it expands their ability to understand. For instance, teach a kid about multiplication early, because math makes more sense, don’t bother with square roots until they need them, as they’re overly complex (how to calculate them) for a beginner.

An example. When I was young, my dad saw my interest in math, and related problems to real life on the farm. He’d tell me to figure out the area of the garden, to calculate how much plastic we’d need, and when I had tried and was having a hard time brute-forcing it, he’d show me how multiplication would work to do the same, and I’d run back and try it, then when he bought the plastic he’d give me the money he’d “saved” by using my calculations to spend on candy. Was a great incentive. Same sort of thing all the way up to trig, for figuring out the height of trees before we got there to cut them down, and other things.

Where it goes wrong is like with skating moms, pressing their (usually) daughters into figure skating, because it’s something they wanted to be good at when they were young. Even if the kids show an interest, it’s likely most don’t really want to spend six hours a day practicing.

5

from WhiteNight:

What’s so hard about pressing a button? :wink:

Someone could read that to mean you are saying the only ones guilty of this are mothers. That’s not the case. Fathers do it too, with football and baseball and basketball. Swimming. Some parents push their kids hard to accomplish what they wanted. On the other hand, some kids want those goals and the pushing helps get them there.

Respectable put a different perspective on this, reminding me sometimes kids just excel.