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I've known three child prodigies, but they are still relatively young--in their early 20s and just beginning their adult lives. The first, the elder brother of the youngest prodigy, is probably 25 now. He made a perfect score on the ACT at 13 when he was a high school senior, but his parents, both professors, wanted him to wait one more year before going to college. The whole family moved the next year when he went straight into a Ph. D. program at Carnegie Mellon. He is now working for Microsoft as a software engineer.
His younger brother is our son's age--they were soccer teammates at age 8, when he was in 7th grade, playing with 3rd and 4th graders. He is now 20, in grad school at Yale School of Medicine doing research in Cellular and Molecular Physiology.
The other prodigy is the son of our daughter's godmother. He graduates this week from Columbia after winning the top math prize. He's going to grad school in London, where he will study quantum physics or cosmology. I've known him since he was six, and I won't be surprised at all if he makes a great contribution to man's knowledge of the universe. I'm very proud of him.
I hate that I lost touch with the brothers and their parents. They were all great people and terrific soccer parents!
My nephew has an IQ off the charts up near 175. He's a talk show host. My son has an IQ near 145, but he's the PhD nuclear physicist, not his cousin with the 30 points above him.
I think schools fail kids miserable in middle school.
-Most kids from elementary school are somewhat "intact"...meaning, they've got good self esteem, they want to learn, they don't "hate school" with a passion. They aren't old enough. I think a lot of growth can be fostered when you're 10 or 11 years old, before middle school.
Then middle school hits, and kids get lost. I remember one of my friends in the early 90's, he was "gifted", thought of as very smart. but a lot of schools don't have the right programs for kids like that. They get lumped in with everyone else. They aren't challenged enough. They aren't given enough time to develop their talents. This was before the testing mania, I'm sure it's worst now.
So what happens? They kind of go over a curve, and slope back down from 9th to 12th grade. Some of these kids could go onto be facebook ceo's, or stanford scientists, etc. For every "genius" that goes onto sillicon valley or manhattan hedge funds, another 10 or 15 are at starbucks right now.
One girl I knew got accepted into harvard, but she turned it down! I wonder how that turned out in this economy.
I don't think it's middle school's fault that kids start hating scchool and acting up. I think it has more to do with the fact that no matter what you do children aged 12 - 15 are a really miserable group. It's a dificult time for most people.
Let's see- one kid made a ham radio in 5th grade (1963) that reached the Soviet Union. He became a genuine rocket scientist with the Jet Propulsion Lab, well married, happy family.
Another one got in on the ground floor of computer-generated animation, got into the Hollywood fast lane, returned home to Mom, and killed himself.
One popular musical prodigy dropped out in tenth grade to tour with the Temptations and had a great career playing studio back up for all the major stars. Now has a guitar shop and nice family with second wife.
The rest of us fall somewhere in-between
I don't think it's middle school's fault that kids start hating scchool and acting up. I think it has more to do with the fact that no matter what you do children aged 12 - 15 are a really miserable group. It's a dificult time for most people.
I agree its a very difficult time and difficult transition. But I don't think the schools make it any easier...
-With a high emphasis on testing. "Prodigies", people with special talent need to be put on a seperate track. Instead of group everyone arbitrarily by age, they should start grouping them by ability.
Let "prodigies" (say in math) take 4 classes a semester instead of 6. Use the other two hours to build up their skill in math. Or let them take more challenging courses. I think many 13-14 year olds could start doing college level work if they got the right training and guidance.
-Schools need better role models. The one teacher model is pretty limiting in this era.
-More collaboration with local research areas, colleges, etc.
-More confidence building. Many "geniuses" could probably be teaching the coursework. Give them more opportunities to showcase their work.
-They should be put into smaller classes with more individual attention. Putting them in classes with 35-40 students is a horrible waste.
I suppose my friend group represented 70 % of the top GPAs from our high school.
Today, 4 are physicans of various specialities. 1 died in a motor bike accident 2 years into uni. 2 are judges. 1 got into hard drugs but is still alive. Still an addict. 1 had a car accident at 20, then another worse one while still recovering from the first. Permanent disability after that. 1 went into electronics, and from that unpromising (back then) start, made millions in the IT boom. 1 is a professor of linguisics and the last one went into the army, he is a captain or colonel these days. We lost touch with him. Thats all except me.
Grew up with a girl that would be considered a prodigy I guess. Straight A's every single year from first grade till graduation. She got a full ride to U of M. Although we lived a couple of houses away from each other we stopped hanging out by the 9th grade. I was pretty shocked to run into her several yrs after graduation, when I got a temp job working for a exporting firm. She was also hired by the same temp agency. We were both put in the data entry dept. She was not the same person as I remembered. She was aloof and at first pretended she didn't know who I was. It was odd. She only lasted a month. The company fired her for not producing enough files. I dont know what happened with her plans as she talked about becoming a doctor. Maybe she snapped or something. Maybe college wasn't what she thought it would be. I dont even know if she ever went. I saw her on facebook last year. She is still working data entry. It really boils down to happiness. Maybe a high pressure career was not something she desired. All I know is she was a different person and didn't seem to want to talk so I left her be.
Smartest kid I knew in HS (not the highest performer in terms of grades but the flat-out smartest) ended up selling fish at the Pike Place Market for about 10 years while earning small change as a juggler and musician.
Last I heard he had become an alcoholic and while drunk driving got into a wreck and killed a man who was a father with young kids.
The valedictorian (and my best friend at the time) of my school got a full scholarship to University of Pittsburgh. The summer before, she got a new boyfriend (her first serious one ever). She did one semester and Pitt, the other at community college. By the next summer she got married and by that fall she had a baby. She never did do more that two semesters of college combined. Now, 15 years later she has two kids, is divorced...and is a customer service manager at Wal-Mart.
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It was odd. She only lasted a month. The company fired her for not producing enough files. I dont know what happened with her plans as she talked about becoming a doctor. Maybe she snapped or something. Maybe college wasn't what she thought it would be. I dont even know if she ever went. I saw her on facebook last year. She is still working data entry. It really boils down to happiness. Maybe a high pressure career was not something she desired. All I know is she was a different person and didn't seem to want to talk so I left her be.
