As a kid, I was always in the 99th percentile of any standardized test. People complimented me on being smart, but smart isn't something you can control, so I learned tricks to maximize how smart I appeared. That included jumping in to anything that came naturally to me and avoiding anything else. I basically never learned to work at anything, to endure frustration, to sit with failure and get past it.
People meant well, I agree with the author: the common notion of genius as something innate and magical is toxic. By all means, make sure kids are properly challenged. But we should do it for every kid.
> People complimented me on being smart, but smart isn't something you can control, so I learned tricks to maximize how smart I appeared. That included jumping in to anything that came naturally to me and avoiding anything else. I basically never learned to work at anything, to endure frustration, to sit with failure and get past it.
This is a pretty common mistake made by parents and teachers during child development:
Great article. This bit is especially interesting: “The key is intermittent reinforcement,” says Cloninger. The brain has to learn that frustrating spells can be worked through. “A person who grows up getting too frequent rewards will not have persistence, because they’ll quit when the rewards disappear.”
As a kid, I was always in the 99th percentile of any standardized test. People complimented me on being smart, but smart isn't something you can control, so I learned tricks to maximize how smart I appeared. That included jumping in to anything that came naturally to me and avoiding anything else. I basically never learned to work at anything, to endure frustration, to sit with failure and get past it.
People meant well, I agree with the author: the common notion of genius as something innate and magical is toxic. By all means, make sure kids are properly challenged. But we should do it for every kid.