The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters

Here is a very interesting article on The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters by Malcolm Gladwell which I think gives great insight into how to raise kids..



Some of the interesting tit-bits..

• A study of 200 highly accomplished adults found that just 34 percent had been considered in any way precocious as children
• What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement.
• A study comparing French-speaking Swiss children, who are taught to read early, with German-speaking Swiss children, who are taught to read later but show far fewer learning problems than their French-speaking counterparts.
• The young Mozart’s prowess can be chalked up to practice, practice, practice. Compelled to practice three hours a day from age three on, by age six the young Wolfgang had logged an astonishing 3,500 hours — “three times more than anybody else in his peer group. No wonder they thought he was a genius.” So Mozart’s famous precociousness as a musician was not innate musical ability but rather his ability to work hard, and circumstances (i.e., his father) that pushed him to do so.