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Tutoring A Child Prodigy?
FortKnox asks: "I have recently taken the opportunity to tutor a 9-year-old child prodigy. He almost has his electronics associates degree. He wants to get into programming (already asked me about Assembly and Java), and wants to design an OS (the next Linus Torvalds?). I'd like my teaching to steer towards cutting edge technology. My question is: what would be the appropriate things to teach him, and do you know of any books/teaching materials that would help? I'd like to eventually get into nanotechnology, but are there other fields that are starting to become edge-breaking that would be beneficial to learn?"
Teach him how to go outside and play and how to play with toys and video games and have a fun childhood.
Now, with that, install any OS that comes with sources, and introduce him to the fine art of hardware programming. The world doesn't need many more programmers... we do need some good device programmers that will have 8 or so years of programming before they expect to be paid a bundle...
I demand a million helicopters and a DOLLAR!
Take him to a basketball game. Take him to the beach. Teach him to throw a football. Take him to some same-age playgroups. Rough-house with him.
I know that you're a tutor, not a big-brother, but I'm using this to make a slightly different point.
The kid is already far, far ahead in mental ability. How much faster does he need to be pushed? By all means, he should study what he's interested in, and move forward at his own pace.
But I've seen too many prodigys with adults around them who want to push them as far as possible, while neglecting other important attributes, like socialization, athletics, and other "non-mental" pursuits.
It's the opposite problem from the jock who's so great at athletics that everyone lets him slide on academics. Then he ends his athletic career, broke, stupid and becomes a bartender.
When kids have a gift (whether academic or athletic), it should be developed, no question. But other parts of life should not be neglected. Gifted kids have lots of time. At the end of their life, they're not going to regret failing to graduate from college at 18 rather than 17. Hopefully, they won't regret a lifetime of loneliness because of broken social skills.
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Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
The kid is nine years old and is a prodigy. He is able to learn what he want, but what is often the problem with these kids, is that when they reach their teens, they feel left out. Please, don't swamp him with technical stuff, he will have his whole life to read boring books on technology. But he will have only a couple of years to learn the basics that will help him get through life. The skills nescessary for social interaction.
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in my experience, at that age, while there are children who truly are extremely gifted in such ares, they don't really understand what goes along with 'designing an OS' or 'learning assembly.' chances are, that those are the most advanced software challenges that he/she could imagine. gifted children have no trouble learning things. in fact, they enjoy it to quite some degree, and in most cases, the greater the challenge, the more rewarding it is for them. however, i have to question whether jumping right into such advanced programming would be helpful. if it we me, i'd give the child a BASIC interpreter and a manual. chances are they'll have that figured out in a week. if you start simple, like with BASIC, and work your way up, the child will wire itself to think like a programmer. that's a good thing.
however, what's even more important than any of this, is getting the child into proper social interaction. entirely too many gifted children become social idiots because they were seperated from the 'normal kids' or were told from an early age that they were better than everybody else. i would also advise keeping said kids among kids of his/her own age, but it sounds like that isn't going to be a possibility.
the summary would probably be learn as much as possible, but keep it fun, and never expect the child to do more than a child should.
"I hope I don't make a mistake and manage to remain a virgin." - Britney Spears
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. -- Nietzsche Seriously though, I think it's wrong to take children and make them be adults too soon. Let him be a child first. He's got enough time later on to be an adult, and he can learn how to be a programmer then.
Open him up to all the available sources. I didn't have anyone to point me toward all the things that are out there when I was about twelve and I think that stifled my computer experience and knowledge by at least six years. If I had known I could learn to program something other than BASIC and actually install my own Unix server when I was a kid, I would be far beyond where I am now. Instead, I didn't find this stuff out until I hooked up with the right friends after highschoool.
Show him the people, groups, books, online guides and other resources are and offer to assist with anything that piques his curiosity. Help provide the hardware resources that he needs to tool around with things that he is intrigued by. He'll find his own path -- you need to be the machete he whacks the clutter away with -- not his compass. His natural intellect and insatiable desire for knowledge will be his compass.
Pushing a kid in math or technology is just as disasterous as pushing a kid in football or wrestling. They need a foundation and companion -- not a booster rocket strapped to their ass, shoving them toward things.
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seumas.com
I believe you should forward your concerns to British Telecom. They have recently shown great interest in handling a prodigy.
"The good die first." "Most of us are morally ambiguous, which explains our random dying patterns." --- MST3K
The reasons is simple - socialization. Being a successful adult is as much a function of charisma as a function of intelligence.
Added to which, such children are typically treated as freakshow material by their peers, which will ultimately limit their endeavors.
My best advice is maybe bump the kid up a grade or two, keep him stimulated on the side, but don't let him be removed from his normal peer group, and don't let him avoid "mundane" tasks like physical labor.
Teach him about the ISO/OSI model of network layers. An understanding of abstraction layers can be applied to many things inside and outside the realm of computers and networking, including operating systems, markets, anthropology and (perhaps most importantly) lasagna.
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I'd like my teaching to steer towards cutting edge technology.
Don't.Anything 'cutting edge' you try to teach a nine year old will be useless by the time he starts shaving :-) (I'm assuming male).
I'm a final year student, at a very good, academic, university. In the first semester of our course we were taught SML (a functional programming language, a style quite unlike procedural languages such as C) and MIPS assembly. Throughout the course we have touched on lisp, c, java, sql, perl, uml, and many more on options that I didn't take. All the time we have been given a good foundation in hardware, networking protocols, algorithms, patterns, and software engineering.
Give the kid a strong academic education. Teach fun stuff, sure, but make sure you teach dull stuff like orders of complexity of algorithms. Give him as broad education as you can - introduce him to as many areas as possible, and if he is a hacker, he will sit up all night studying the key areas that interest him anyway. That's just my $0.02.
cheers,
G
Second, while he may be prodigal in a sense of what he can learn, despite occaisonal appearances to the contrary, he is still very much a child psychologically. You need to read some very good books on child development and psychology to try to determine what stages he is currently going through. Understanding his current emotional stages will help you a lot in dealing with him properly. Perhaps even an exploratory visit to a child psychologist would help even more to iron these things out, since they're especially hard to determine in children like these.
Third, here's my personal insight. I was a "child prodigy" type that never got pushed much at all. When I was 8-9 years old, I was already making post high school scores on standardized tests. Nobody pushed me into any advanced fields. My parents did a little in the form of tutoring me up to a few grade levels ahead of myself over the summers between school semesters. I also got my first basic interpreter around that time, and then quickly moved (on my own, no pushing) into assembly and later to C.
I feel that my life turned out very well, and that I have nurtured my own curiousity without any extra push. I can also see now in hindsight (not much, I'm still only 24, but whatever) that as much as I believed that I understood things at various ages, there are some things that no amount of raw intelligence can teach you. There are some things that must be learned over time. And these are not sappy things like true love, these are concepts important to creative processes and learning.
I would also note that of great benefit to me was a lot of overseas travel and living as a child. I believe now more than ever that immersing a any child in as wide an array of situations and experiences as you can helps to maximize them in a very natural and gentle way.
11*43+456^2
Probably, the child prodigy (anyone, actually) should be able to
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Introduce him to Donald Knuth and Danny Hillis. Ask him to look at obvious objects and think of ways to employ them differently.
Ask him about what kinds of problems exist and how we solve them short term. How should we approach them for long term solutions?
In this way, you're exposing him to great thinkers that have contributed to our technological landscape, while asking him to think and potentially become one of these people.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
I grew up like the child you describe in that I was extremely gifted (probably not to the extent this child is) and have worked with gifted and talented children as well. With that in mind, I can relate a few things I enjoyed and how they might help you.
1. Begin with projects not just book learning. Make things into games and challenges not just straight out of the book. This is a child emotionally and they like to learn when it's fun. If you're studying something, put it in the form of game, challenge, or neat project.
2. Remember that this is a 9 year old no matter how intelligent he or she is. Unless the child has an incredibly high emotional age your still dealing with someone who is undergoing the rigors of pre-adolescence and is subject to things such as loss of attention, boredom, hyperactivity, among other things. Just do not forget child's age and be patient.
3. Take the advice of some of the early posters and make sure the child is adjusting and can interact with the rest of the children. Even though this may not be your job, it will help the child develop.
4. Have one-on-one and group time.
This is where I differ from the rest of the posters here. I went down both paths in two different schools. One, I was in class with rest of the children and the other I was brought together with other children at my own intellectual capacity. I can tell you flat out, I learned more and had more fun when I was with others that could think on my level but were still my age. So if he or she does have friends and they are gifted as well, try to get them all together and do things with one another intellectually stimulating. You don't need to dump massive amounts of knowledge just give them the right tools to problem solve. The kids will have a better time and learn more when they are all working together. Think about it, weren't projects more fun with a great group!
5. Care. Do not take on this challenge unless your 100% committed to the child. Dealing with a child who is gifted requires at least as much effort as one who has a disability. Where a child with a disability will challenge you emotionally and physically, the gifted child will challenge you intellectually and emotionally. Do not get frustrated with them if they do not perform to their intellectual capacity. Keep positive and urging then to explore the world around them. The child will progress at their own pace they feel comfortable and you are but a guide.
I am very happy you have chosen to work with a gifted and talented child and I wish you all the best. However, don't feel as though you have to cram every major new breakthrough into their brain, just show them the wonders that are out there and they will take care of the rest.
First of all, I recommend you take the advice of the "throw a football" contingent with the proper seasoning. Yes, you don't want to raise this kid to be an outcast. But you also don't want to cheat him of the best developmental period he'll ever have. Being a preadolescent genius isn't just an opportunity to learn some stuff a few years before everyone else -- it's an opportunity to get that matertial into a brain that's still plastic and growing. People who learn math at that age have an opportunity to think in ways that come very hard to anyone older.
I would say absolutely push this kid to learn challenging material (I'll get to the content in a moment). Also do the big brother stuff, or find someone who can. I'm not sure about pushing peer-group interactions, because it would be hard to find a peer group. Dumping him with other kids his own age might just enforce the perspective that most people are dumb and not worth his time. Teaching him to look for information and answers from other people, online, might be a start. It would be nice to find others on his emotional and intellectual levels, but I can't tell you where to look.
As for material to study, I would stay away from the "bleeding edge." You never know what will collapse, or what will be radically reconceptualized. Anyway, the best programmers (just for example) aren't the ones who have been writing C since they were five; they're the ones who have a deep understanding of the mathematics that underly all programming and automatic systems. These are the people who will always be valuable, who can understand any new development. They'll still be advancing our understanding after the market-glutters who learned perl and java for two years in college are used up and discarded.
Rather than specific fields, then, look at the commonalities among the big trends in science and/or computers, and see what their basis is. Don't study nanotech, study physics. Don't study cloning; study cell biology. Aim for knowledge that won't become obsolete, and will create a firm foundation for whatever comes.
Apropos of the pop neurology above, I'd recommend the more arcane / symbolic fields like math and logic. It's a rare opportunity to be able to build those things into the brain on a low level, and should not be discarded. This is probably also a good time to teach music, even though the idea is somewhat tainted by prodigies who had their lives ruined by overbearing tutors.
I think my advice is good. But to put it to proper use, you'll need compassion and sensitivity. The most important thing is to foster a love of learning, not to crush it. So make sure that at every step, your charge is studying something he loves; make sure he knows why it's valuable and just how cool it is.
- Michael
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Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
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Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
The reasons is simple - socialization. Being a successful adult is as much a function of charisma as a function of intelligence.
If your definition of a "successful adult" means "used car salesman/politician", then maybe. However, I've met a number of extremely successful scientists and none of them gave a damn about being charasmatic.
I think it is as bad to force the child to "play with kiddie toys" as it is to force the child to learn academically beyound his desires. I got an impression that this particular child WANTED to learn advanced computer stuff. NOT to support such desires may amount to neglect, IMNSHO. That's how much of kids' creativity is being destroyed. Go to this page for much of your "gifted" needs (I am not affiliated with them): http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/
As someone who works with gifted children on a regular basis (tutor, and residential counselor during the summer) and as someone who has studied gifted/talented education, I want to give some reccomendations:
1) Remember that while the child might be intelligent in some areas, this does not always mean that he is gifted in all areas. He might be capable of understanding quantum mechanics, but his understanding of biology might stop at "We are all made of cells." Literature and the arts are often left out of a true prodigy's education.
2) School is not so much to teach you *things*, but rather to teach you how to *learn*. As others have said, teach him how to research, and how to answer problems and questions on his own. Assign projects on things he knows nothing about that will be difficult to find (some obscure historical event, for example).
3) Social skills are important. Teach him how to be "friends" with somebody. Teach him how to have fun, and how to joke around. Make sure that he sees education as something fun (more difficult than it sounds)
4) Teach him how to relax. From the sounds of it, this kid is under quite a bit of pressure from somewhere (possibly from himself, but I would guess itis external). Teach him how to take a break from that, even if it is just for an hour.
5) Teach him how to motivate himself. One day that pressure is not going ot be there and he is going to have to know what to do without it.
6) Teach him why he should be learning these things. Show the results of string theory, of relativity, of in everyday life.
7) Teach him that he has limitations. Everyone does, his are just higher than others.
The last thing I can say is to be there for him. I have helped more gifted/talented children by doing that than anything else. I have received phone calls at 3 in the morning from children I have known that just need reassurance that what they are going through is normal, that someone else has gone through the same thing.
Note: I used the male gender in my examples, but know of more than enough gifted/talented females.
The other thing I would say is to do some research yourself. Do not push him into a field, let him decide for himself. And remember that the child will soon pass your own abilities in the field. Check out some books on gifted/talented methods and psychology. There are many out there.
Good luck!
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
The "P" word, of course, is potential.
.44 before he can ever reach his potential.
To a child prodigy, this becomes a more vulgar and profane word than damn, fuck, or Microsoft could ever be.
I was a child "prodigy," though probably not to the level of this child. However, I started to rebel because I started to be told how much potential I had.
The subtle meaning kids pick up on is: I would love you more if...
Affection becomes conditional, at least in the eyes of the child.
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Now, as for what to teach him, I saw a great suggestion below. Teach him communications! Teach him how to observe his classmates, and make it a game to be able to interact with them.
In the "bleeding edge" areas, teach him whatever you can connect to the basics. However, teach him what he is interested in. Pass subjects by him, and see what makes his eyes shine. Have him research the basics. Then start developing small projects that increase in complexity. Most importantly, make him complete the project. This will teach him the power to finish, something many people don't learn until much later in life.
However, above all, MAKE SURE that he understands you care about him, not his brain. This is the most important. Without this, all the training may not matter because that brain will be shattered with a
In addition to all the other wisdom dumped into this thread I would let the kid have a good understanding/knowledge of the past few hundred years of learning. Ensure the kid knows where we've come from and what we've gone through to get here. Helps us to realise that we're standing on the shoulders of giants and to try to prevent us reinventing the mistakes of others :)
:) - I would definitely recommend a bit of social interaction in around the science/tech. Perhaps include "Emotional Intelligence" on the reading list :)
On the social skills - a person doesn't have to be charismatic or a jock but a good understanding of social interactions can *really* help
I left my body to science, but I'm afraid they've turned it down...
It sounds to me like this poor kid is getting a totally one-dimensional education.
I think it's silly to be teaching a 9-year old, prodigy or not, stuff like Java or any other applied technology, no matter how bright. These topics are transient, and will have little value 10 years from now. Teach him art,languages, literature, mathematics, history, economics and the sciences (at of course a level appropriate to his talents). Don't worry about the applied topics - he will choose those when he decides what he wants to do. Your job is to give him a solid foundation to generalize from.
Teach him some morals and higher ideals - show him the ills of the world.
The world needs another MLK or Ghandi a hell of alot more than another Linus or Bill Gates... do us all a favour..
I think there's a rogue moderator or two out there that took all of the comments relating to "Take the kid outside to socialize, don't lock him in the library" and modded them down as redundant.
:-P (just kidding) Frankly, I never found academic pursuits interesting enough to dedicate myself to them like some people would have liked. I have a much broader understanding of life because of that.
I find that very poor behavior. Most of the comments were, indeed, redundant, but not in the sense that they all needed to be modded down. Now, ALL such comments are below the +5 limit, and if I had mod points I'd put every one of them back up there. I have a feeling someone disagreed with the point being made and did that on purpose.
It's a very good point. I was never considered a child prodigy, per se, but I was regarded as highly gifted and I was given opportunities at many instances in my childhood to advance at the expense of me remaining a normal, happy-go-lucky kid with the rest of my peers. I refused all such opportunities, went on to complete a pretty normal education, and now I'm just as smart as I ever was, except I DO have charisma, charm, and friendliness to sit on top of my masked arrogance and impatience!
Plus, people can actually talk to me. No offense to the Slashdot crowd, but I'm a Comp Sci major about to graduate, and I HATE every one of my peers in my department because they're all arrogant snobbish assholes. They can sit around on Friday night formatting their hard drives and messing around with Linux, but I think they're missing out on life. (Note that my point is that they do that all the time... I've spent Friday nights home on my computer, but I can ALSO go out to a bar and have a good time, which I'd rather do... and they can't do that, they'd be out of place)
My only regret was pointed out in another post... because I never put a consistent effort into school, I find it hard applying my intelligence consistently in anything. I'm technically diagnosed with ADD, but I'm sure that I could have trained myself to focus a lot better early on - had I been treated for having ADD prior to two years ago. Perhaps a missed opportunity, but I think everything happens for a reason, so no big deal.
Mod the hell out of me but I just wanted to say that.
Oh, I think it's funny that almost no one gave answers that the person had in mind, about real subject materials to present to the kid... I think any kid at 9 years old who says he wants to make an operating system is perhaps a little loopy anyway. I mean, I played with Legos as a kid, but I didn't say I wanted to build an office building.
It is far better to present sources of information and how to use these sources. From their intellectual curiousity will drive the student to areas that are stimulating. The teacher then becomes a guide to raise questions for consideration and to make sure there is some focus.
This is not the way to build a lasting empire.
However, while you are not-lecturing, you need to pay attention to what the student is learning, what the student's interests and learning style are, etc.
The trick is to provide the right direction at the right moment that keep the student from becoming either bored or frustrated.
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