How Do You Educate a Prodigy? 659
Nethead writes "When he was 8 years old, Gabriel See got a score on the math part of the SAT that would be the envy of most high-school seniors. When he was 10, he worked on T-cell receptor research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He's built a Genomic Lab Liquid Handling System out of Legos. He's studied chaos theory, string theory, quantum mechanics and nuclear science. He's 13 now. How do you fit him into the American school system?"
You don't. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds a little like me (Score:5, Interesting)
I took college classes from 9 to 13, then my parents pulled me out entirely. There were good and bad aspects to my path. At 13, actual graduate math classes were a bit over my head, and I felt a lot of pressure and feelings of failure because I couldn't quite hack them. Also, being isolated was hard, and it wasn't until I came back to grad school at 22 that I felt I developed my social skills properly. But being allowed to focus on intellectual pursuits was really nice in a way, and I actually look back on that fondly. Now I have my PhD and work for Google, and I do geeky things for fun. As one example, I'm noodling on keyboards, and, being me, I'm writing a DX7 synthesizer emulator. Most people consider the math of it to be impenetrably difficult, but, I'm like, "oh, _Bessel_ functions, I can dig that shit!"
I hope he does well and finds a path that makes him happy. One thing my parents did was keep me out of the newspapers (and off the front page of Slashdot, although we didn't have that then). I'm not sure whether that was entirely good or bad - publicity is valuable coin in today's society :)
Some Anecdotes That Don't Make the News (Score:5, Interesting)
And he kind of burned out. He lives with his brother (my good friend) now and hasn't ever really had a real job. After he completed college, he decided to independently pursue his own interests and sort of realized that the whole educational path he had taken was really him just quickly absorbing other people's works. Striking out on new ground was far too uncomfortable for him. What was worse was that this totally destroyed his confidence. He's never been unhappy with his life but outside of his mother's reach, he's really just kicked back and played video games. I think the greatest work of the last five years of his life has been editing TVTropes -- a site that he became obsessed with after he discovered he could spend all day watching television with no consequence. Jay has never had peers really aside from his brothers. I'm no child psychologist but I think it has had a devastating effect on his understanding on society and also his work ethic.
The other person was a coworker, Tom, who was a very talented software developer. I met him when he was 40 and one time he told me at lunchtime about his childhood. Tom had burned out as well but in a more problematic way. Tom also completed college (Physics) at a very young age but upon having difficulty his senior year, he became depressed and had suicidal thoughts. So his parents flipped out and brought him to a psychologist who diagnosed him with Asperger's Syndrome (which he clearly did not have when I met him) and gave him a bunch of drugs. He discovered he was great at programming software and decided to make a career out of it. He still said his mother's disappointment that he didn't "cure cancer" or discover a universal filed theory was probably the most regrettable thing in his life and it was ever present in their interactions.
"He'll probably find a cure for cancer," Sleight said. "Or something bigger."
I think a more positive statement would be something along the lines of "He has accomplished so much and already done such great research that even if he stopped studying now he would be an accomplished academic." Not to suggest that he should stop studying but to relieve a bit of the pressure. What if he doesn't cure cancer or something bigger? What will this news do to Gabriel the person then? Haunt him?
I would advocate trying to keep him involved in school as much as he desires with external stimulation to help his specialties. Why must geniuses be removed from society? Was Einstein removed from interacting with children his age? What exactly is the hurry? Is Gabriel asking for more time to study -- time that regular schooling is interfering with? Does he have a network of friends to rely on? Is he expected to live a short life like Ramanujan?
My opinion is to let him excel at school and take a more normal path than complete removal and its unavoidable isolation.
Re:It'd be the same as anyone else. (Score:5, Interesting)
You don't learn in school. School is about socialization and indoctrination.
I see this parroted often, and I think it's misguided.
School can and does teach - there are lots of teachers out there that are passionate about teaching and really want their students to learn. Yes, there are also those teachers that don't care.
Of course no kid is ever going to get to prodigy level in the US school system, but if a teacher's done his/her job, the seed will have been planted for that potential prodigy to continue learning through his/her life.
If anything, it's the "school only indoctrinates you" mantra that holds kids back.
From experience: (Score:3, Interesting)
In 5th grade, at the request of my teacher, I took my SAT's. I scored higher than 88% of college bound high-school students. I was put into an "accelerated program" that took myself and all the children like me (the smartest 0.005% of children age 7-11 from the entire school district) by bus into a single classroom 3 days a week. We were issued a "class project" which was to promote recycling. We gave speeches at places like MIT to push the agenda, and ultimately our class project worked. Prior to us there was no recycling in schools. Now, you can't visit a school now without seeing blue recycle bins.
At one point, at age 12, I was offered a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University when I finished high-school provided I maintained my grades. That was the positive aspect...
Now the negative...
The extra work they forced us to do frustrated and stressed us. They talked down to us when we didn't understand things. It took away our childhoods, as we spent long hours doing extra homework with no pay-off other than to assess our individual limitations. In the end, most of the kids burned out by the time we were halfway through high-school. I kept in touch with most of them for years and none of them did any better in society after school than our contemporary classmates. What it did do, however, is make all of us, and I mean ALL, social outcasts and misfits.
Personally, prior to the program I was in, I had a handful of good friends and was on little league basketball and baseball teams. Dare I say, I was actually popular. After going into the program, it was school work only. While my friends would meet up after school to hang out and play, I was inside doing extra homework. The trend continued for a couple years and by the time middle school came around, when all the schools in the district dumped into one, I was the loner in a much larger crowd. A year or two later high-school rolled around, and I was jumped (group assaulted) repeatedly before, during, and after school at least 3 days a week. Why? Because I scored higher on the tests, because I turned in my homework on time, and because I knew the answers to questions asked in class. I moved schools, but it just continued. I was just a loner nerd, and let's be honest, teens can sniff that stuff out. My parents had long talks with school administrators on all levels, but none helped or even seemed to care. I eventually started skipping classes to avoid beatings, no joke. Ultimately, I dropped out of school in my junior year and got my G.E.D. and started community college while my classmates were still starting their senior year.
I wish someone would've stepped in and told my parents that just because I had more aptitude than the vast majority didn't mean I had to use it immediately. Let the child live his life. With the way that life expectancy is rising, and retirement age is increasing he'll have to work for 80 years. He gets about 10 years to actually enjoy life, let him while he still can.
Re:Some Anecdotes That Don't Make the News (Score:4, Interesting)
Burn out is really the problem, that a lot of folks don't consider when it comes to prodigies. At some point they all hit a point where the abilities they had aren't sufficient to keep moving on to bigger challenges, if they haven't been provided with the same tools that the rest use to organize and get things done, that's where it sits.
A normal school is perfectly fine, provided that the school is teaching the organizational skills necessary to manage work, and that the student isn't required to do everything super slow just because the rest of the class is.
I was personally, fortunate enough not to get that fast tracked, but I was in college by 16 and even with time off and screwing around graduated by 22. Which isn't bad considering that I was deliberately dragging it out and didn't know what I wanted and took time off in the middle to do other things.
The other bit there, is that just because they're intellectually advanced doesn't mean that they should be permitted to completely waste their childhoods without a bit of screwing around and goofing off. In the long run they'll need to have something that isn't related to their primary work, otherwise there's much less opportunity to cope with the inevitable burn out that comes later on.
Fiction (Score:3, Interesting)
Didn't any of you read Ender's Game? Remember how, among other things, Ender often longs to just be a kid?
You are using a fictional story about a prodigy written by someone who was not a prodigy and likely has no special insights into raising one as a guide? Should we next consult the Fellowship of the Ring for advice on raising an adopted nephew?
Seriously, your point about exposing him to other things is fine but using Ender's Game as a parenting guide is beyond ridiculous.
Re:You Did It to Yourself (Score:5, Interesting)
The point is, someone can be the most intelligent person in the world, but if they have no drive or don't want to achieve greatness, no amount of pushing and prodding is going make them do so.
Re:You don't. (Score:3, Interesting)
Truth. Any extra resources in the public school system - which let's face it, there are no "extra" resources in our current public school system - are devoted to bringing those on the opposite end of the spectrum up to grade level. There are very few programs and opportunities to advance a gifted child within the system.
Public schooling in the US is not for gifted children. Your only viable options are home or private schooling. The child's opportunities for learning and enrichment are only going to be as good as the resources and involvement the parent can provide.
Let him decide. (Score:4, Interesting)
He's obviously the one person best suited to figure it out. He knows more about the range of topics that he has studied than his parents or his teachers. Where he might need help is in getting access to the resources that he chooses to take advantage of, given his young age.
As for extracurricular activities, the article already states that he participates in other non-academic pursuits. I'm not concerned about the need for balance in that regard.
The one concern I do have is that for all the academic and extracurricular activities, the one thing he needs to learn to be HAPPY in life is how to relate to others. That's not something you get while doing scientific research, or by doing sports. It's not something you get by overachieving in any sense.
I didn't learn that lesson until relatively late in my teenage years. I was miserable throughout my childhood and adolescence. I still carry the emotional scars. And the problem is that, for all the compliments that others pay me, calling me "talented" and "intelligent," I feel paralyzed, like everyone is always expecting something great to come out of me, and all I ever do is disappoint when I don't meet those expectations. So I stop trying.
Granted, I'm not saying this kid is going to end up the same way. All I'm saying is that he needs to be given the permission to NOT do something grandiose with his life. He doesn't owe anything to anyone but himself. I've come to realize that the most successful and well-adjusted people in life are the ones who are not only talented, but also have the drive, discipline, and perseverance to continue despite past failures. It's not enough to simply have one or the other.
Re:Why fit in? (Score:5, Interesting)
Boy Scouts is good for the socialization, the outdoor experiences, and the service. For someone like this, social development is key. The badges are a joke for anyone remotely intelligent, but the experiences can be excellent. Try to get him involved in the Order of the Arrow through Boy Scouts--one of the largest youth-led organizations in the world, its emphasis on service is helpful to develop in someone.
Also, there are no race-based limitations on membership.
Re:Some Anecdotes That Don't Make the News (Score:5, Interesting)
I think there is the real problem when the child has a genius level talent, people put him on this high horse to succeed at everything. But because he expects everything to be easy in life he doesn't learn about working hard, or even putting in any effort. So when they grow up they will not keep a job because they either expect place of employment to treat him like a god (not realizing once you reach 18 you are no longer a child prodigy), or perhaps due to his intelligence get very board with the job and causes more problems then what he is worth.
A real life Dr. House wouldn't have so many people begging him back to stay after all the crap he deals out. They would fire him, and not let him back, even if he can save those extra 20 people a year. Because the cost of the legal suites against the hospital probably creating a situation where hundreds of people probably died because the correct departments didn't get the full funding they could have gotten.
Being a genius doesn't make you a good person, or a useful person. A person with above average intelligence but a strong work ethic can probably be more useful then a genius who never was taught to work hard, and tough it out threw the boring parts.
Normal School will work fine (Score:4, Interesting)