> The hypothesis that I think should be tested is whether there is correlation between being a child prodigy in a technical field ... and getting to read early.
It would be cool if all children could be helped to find the thing they are good at and love and let them become the best they can in that field through positive reinforcement and minimum coercion.
> It makes sense theoretically -- if you learn to read by age 8, is there enough time for you to grasp all of high school math and computer science by age 14, like Manjul Bhargava?
I think the most important thing what you can extract from the case of the Field's medalist is that he seems to enjoy what he does.
Usually when lots of parents are really ambituous about their childrens futures they force their children to rote-learn lots of mundane knowledge or repeat tiring exercises... such an approach leads most of the time to lots of sad adults with average achievements. I would much prefer lots of content and happy adults with average achievements.
The prodigies will happen, but it would be really nasty to force all children to try to be prodigies.
It would be cool if all children could be helped to find the thing they are good at and love and let them become the best they can in that field through positive reinforcement and minimum coercion.
> It makes sense theoretically -- if you learn to read by age 8, is there enough time for you to grasp all of high school math and computer science by age 14, like Manjul Bhargava?
I think the most important thing what you can extract from the case of the Field's medalist is that he seems to enjoy what he does.
Usually when lots of parents are really ambituous about their childrens futures they force their children to rote-learn lots of mundane knowledge or repeat tiring exercises... such an approach leads most of the time to lots of sad adults with average achievements. I would much prefer lots of content and happy adults with average achievements.
The prodigies will happen, but it would be really nasty to force all children to try to be prodigies.