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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?"
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.
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
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
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.
Hear hear. And also make sure he gets a broad education, and exposure to the arts as well as the sciences.
I studied engineering at an Ivy League university (and don't think I'm tooting my own horn, 'cos I basically sucked at it). One of my classmates was a child prodigy who entered the university at age 14 and was a real whiz at all of his physics and engineering classes... but he had no social skills, he was a real pain to be around, he talked too loud and always talked about himself and how easy the classes were for him, because he was forever trying to impress the rest of us to gain acceptance.
One night at dinner he sat with me and a bunch of my friends who were talking about a recent show at an art gallery... he listened for a minute, looking confused, before he asked, "Why is THAT important?" He just had no clue that the liberal arts were anything more than a frivolous waste of time.
The best thing you can do for your nine-year-old is to expose him to as much as you can, and to make sure that he doesn't become specialized on any one thing too early in his life. Good luck!
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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"
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
What a fucking stereotype! Some of the most brilliant people I know who got way ahead academically have equally good social lives -- one does not preclude the other. That said I guess it is worthwhile to mention -- don't want to fall into the "don't waste your time with that!" trap.
..etc...).
As someone with a good founding in Ed/Psych, and at least a few years in front of the classroom, i've worked with some gifted kids. My advice runs similar to what I was learned in the first year of grad school about any kid: Remember that the ACTION in education is not teaching, it's learning. The person who does that action is the child, not the "teacher", which is a completely mis-labeled term. You're nothing but an assistant.
The best thing to deal with gifted kids is to expose them to huge amounts of resources that they can explore at their own pace. Then you let them go where they want, and you simply act as a coach/guide... suggesting areas tehy may want to explore first, applications of what they're seeing, and being there for discussions. Remember, they will probably soon know more than you do about any given subject -- but discussing it is usually the best way to anchor that knowledge. So being a enthusiastic sounding-board for them is important.
Don't worry about pushing them in any particular direction... in fact pushing at all is the worst thing you can do (that includes pushing them into sports, or other stuff) because any path they choose themselves is always more interesting to them than one they were forced into. Remember that they ALREADY are far enough ahead that you don't need to worry about them having the basics down. He'll graduate high school and go on to college and get a job. So anything else he does is pure gravy, and the best way to insure he keeps inerest is to let him choose.
Also -- kids are kinetic and tacticle things. Whatever path he chooses, try to figure out ways he can create and build using it. And try to figure out what other skills are needed to create whatever project he's into, and point him toward them. (...hmm... you may need a scripting language for this. Let's take a look at Python. Hmm... may need to do some metalwork on this one -- let's learn to weld!
The thing most kids really need is a "partner in crime"... so be there for him. Do things with him. That's the important thing -- he'll do the rest.
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
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.