Late Capitalism

October 11th, 2010 at 3:28PM

Only a few [gifted children] rose to fame and fortune, and no matter how glittering their early prospects, they had to work extremely hard most of their lives to get there. There is a big difference between a gifted child and a gifted adult. A child is seen as gifted because they are ahead of their age peers, especially at school, while a “gifted” adult has to be seen to make a difference to the world. — Prodigy psychologist: The gifted child’s curse - opinion - 11 October 2010 - New Scientist (via mikehudack)

Very, very interesting. I’ve heard that, when raising children, it’s better to tell them “you worked really hard on that! Good job!” rather than telling them “you’re so smart!”. This way, the child learns that their hard work pays off and doesn’t believe their successes are due to innate ability.
Side note - I was on the “gifted on top of gifted” super accelerated academic track, and all it did was instill in me an intense fear of failure. I would avoid activities that I wasn’t instantly good at, since not being good at something served as proof that I perhaps wasn’t as “gifted” as people told me I was. Apparently, this is common: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

Good thing my parents always said “You can do better”?

(via marilynhack)