Global Breaking News - Wednesday, May 15, 2024

The Benefits and Pressures of Being a Young Genius
The debut album of an 11-year-old jazz prodigy from Indonesia, who became an overnight sensation with a guest performance at Lincoln Center last year, is out this week. While child prodigies can enjoy tremendous access from their fame, the pressure of accomplishment at a young age can be immense. Is being a child prodigy more of a blessing or a curse?
* prodigy = 영재/ overnight sensation = 하룻밤 새에 돌풍(스타)이 된/ tremendous = 엄청난, 대단한/ pressure of ~ = ~의 압박/ immense = 엄청난, 어마어마한/ blessing = 축복/ curse = 저주, 악담, 욕

 신동인것은 오히려 축복인가요 아니면 저주인가요?

1. Black and Hispanic Prodigies Are Often Overlooked
Finding true peers is most challenging for prodigies whose families have few resources and are culturally diverse.

2. Often, a Difficult Transition to Adult Genius
The skill of being a child prodigy is qualitatively different from the “skill” of being an adult creative genius.

3. Normal Life and Special Talent Can Co-Exist
My choice was not simply one between high school and a public life. By turning down some opportunities, both lives could coexist.

4. Challenge Highly Talented Children
Accelerated coursework and enrichment programs are critical to the success of gifted students. As any parent can attest, a bored child is not a happy child.

5. To Sustain Talent, Keep it Playful
You simply can’t grow from a precocious child into a grown-up researcher unless you can maintain your sense of play in doing the research.

6. Special Instruction Can Be a Necessity for the Gifted
Many musical prodigies are so driven with interest, hours of practice become a way of feeding something that's simply an outlet.

Sample Essay

Challenge Highly Talented Children

I co-direct a longitudinal study of more than 5,000 talented individuals we have been tracking since they were first identified around age 13. Many scored in the top 1 percent (or even the top tenth of 1 percent) on the SAT, several years before students typically take that test.

Our subjects are now older, many middle aged, and have demonstrated remarkable levels of achievement across a range of fields, including the STEM disciplines. Fortune 500 executives, research scientists, educators and musical producers, these men and women reported uniformly high levels of personal life satisfaction.

Knowledge about talent development suggests that gifted children like these thrive when given the opportunity to explore their curiosity at a pace that works for them. Accelerated coursework and enrichment programs are critical to the success of such students. Outside of school, they may disappear to tinker in the garage or spend endless hours practicing an instrument.

It’s a myth that gifted children would thrive no matter what their learning environment. Highly talented children who are not challenged in the classroom are at risk of falling through the cracks. They can become discipline problems, lose interest in schoolwork or even drop out. As my partner, David Lubinski, likes to say, “All kids have the right to learn something new every day.”

Parents and teachers should be alert to children who master tasks or concepts quickly, or initiate new interests — and they should welcome the chance to challenge children by giving them more to do. As any parent can attest, a bored child is not a happy child. Parents should also look for opportunities to match their children with intellectual or artistic peers. Becoming truly excellent at something requires many hours of isolated practice. But when practice is over, it is good to have friends.