They know how to read at two years old, at four they play Bach Tockates, at six they count in the mind, and by eight they begin to speak in foreign languages fluently. Their classmates bit their elbows with envy, and parents think that they won a happy ticket to the lottery. However, whether the ingenious start guarantees a brilliant future?
The bitter truth is that the child prodigy rarely become adult geniuses that can change the world. Let’s see, for example, at the laureates of STS (search for scientific talents) – the most prestigious American award, noting gifted schoolchildren. For the first 52 years of its existence (from 1942 to 1994), about two thousand wunderkinds were selected as finalists, but only one percent of them later connected their activities with the National Academy of Sciences. Eight of the mentioned owners of the awards received Nobel prizes, but the remaining dozens and hundreds of young geniuses, becoming adults, did not realize their potential.
It was previously believed that gifted children lack social and emotional skills necessary for successful socialization. However, such an explanation was recognized as insufficient, since less than a quarter of all windoderkints actually faces any social or emotional difficulties. The vast majority of them are well prepared and has the same success at a cocktail party as in the spelling lesson.
What prevents the wormhinds from becoming original and creative personalities? The fact is that gifted children seek to earn the approval of parents and the admiration of teachers. For the sake of this, they can work hard and become, for example, chess champions, but the learning process does not give them an incentive to create a new. Such guys are able to play Mozart’s magnificent melodies, but rarely compose their own. They focus all energy on the consumption of existing scientific knowledge, without producing new ideas. Young talents prefer to comply with a long -headed order, and not invent https://7modulares.com/servicios/consultoria-ejecucion-y-licitacion-de-proyectos-publicos-y-privados/ a bicycle. If a creative child appears in the classroom, then he most likely does not want to strictly fulfill all the requirements of the teacher, but will defend his own views.
Growing up, many child prodigations become experts in what they know and can best. And only a small part of gifted children ultimately grows in innovators and creators. The majority prefers not to go beyond their favorite activity, only there are applying their outstanding mental abilities. Of the ingenious children, doctors are obtained who are fighting for the lives of patients, without trying to correct flaws of the medical system as a whole, or, for example, lawyers protecting customers from unfair accusations, but do not try to adjust the laws themselves.
So what needs to be done to raise a child with a creative personality? In a recent study, experts compared a few family among themselves: with creative and ordinary children. As it turned out, the parents of “ordinary” children set for them at least five or six rules that they should be guided in life: a schedule sleep, a special daily routine. The educators of creative children offered them no more than one rule. Instead, parents encouraged their children to think on their own, focusing their attention on moral values.
There is something unique in the parents of the kids themselves, from which creative personalities grow up: they pay special attention to the development of their own “Ethics Code”. The older generation, of course, explains to the youngest that success and demand are important elements of life, but at the same time encourages young geniuses in an effort to understand their own values and discover their interests. All this creates good prerequisites for the development of a creative personality.
American psychologist Benjamin Bloom closely studied the features of the early development of famous musicians, artists, athletes and scientists. He managed to find out that their parents did not dream of a career of superstars for their children, did not act in the family as strict overseers, but, on the contrary, sensitively responded to the internal motivation of their sons and daughters. When the kids showed interest in something, they were ready to get down to business with enthusiasm, their parents unconditionally supported them. For example, Mozart showed interest in music before he began to take lessons, and not vice versa, and the jazz pianist and composer Mary Lu Williams learned to play piano and completely independently.
“Geniuses and outsiders. Why is it all, but the other is nothing?”
The new book of Malcolm Gladwell is devoted to the topic of success. However, as usual, he approaches her very non -trivial: Gladwell is convinced that personal efforts and abilities, no matter how indisputable they are, do not play a key role in achieving an outstanding result.
In his book “Geniuses and outsiders”, the Canadian journalist and sociologist Malcolm Gladwell formulated the so -called “Rule of 10 thousand hours” 1 . Based on a number of studies, Gladwell argued that geniuses are not born, but became as a result of hard training. In his opinion, in order to achieve a certain outstanding result in most areas of activity, it is necessary to devote 10 thousand hours to practice and training. It is not too clear how the amount of time varies depending on the area of application of the forces and characteristics of a particular person, but this is not the most important question that this theory raises before us. Firstly, the more we train, the more often we fall into the trap of the usual ways of thinking and solving problems. The expert often cannot cope with the introduction of any innovations into the practice, while for a beginner whose consciousness is free from all kinds of cliches, such a task does not seem difficult. Secondly, it is the internal predisposition that causes curiosity in a person and encourages to train the skill for 10 thousand hours or even more. It is the natural tendency to something that also determines the pleasure of the process of this training.
Experience shows that the success of creative self -realization depends on the breadth of interests, and not only on the depth of our knowledge and experience. Scientists who have received the Nobel Prize 22 times more often than their “unailed” peers become actors, dancers or even illusionists, 12 times more often begin to write poetry or novels, 7 times more often turn to decorative arts and 2 times more willing to beginplaying musical instruments or composing music. No one forces outstanding scientists to choose a creative hobby for themselves. It becomes a reflection of their curiosity. As Albert Einstein wrote, love is the best teacher than a sense of duty. Mom wrote him to a music school at the age of five, dreaming that his son would master the game on the violin, but nothing came of this venture. The future physicist perceived the lessons as a boring duty, but once he heard Mozart’s sonatas who conquered him. “I took the lessons of the game on the violin from 6 to 14 years old, but I was not lucky with teachers for whom music classes were limited to mechanical exercises. I really began to engage in only 13 years, mainly after I fell in love with Mozart’s sonatas. Trying to at least to some extent to convey the artistic content and unique grace, I felt the need to improve the technique-it was then that I achieved success, ”writes Albert Einstein.
You are unlikely to be able to program the child so that he grows up with a creative person or succeeds in a specific area. If you want your children to give the world their original ideas, let them not be guided by yours, but their own feelings.
For more details see. On the website of The New York Times.
1M. Gladwell “Geniuses and outsiders. Why is it all, but the other is nothing?”(Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2009).
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