"I'm OK, You're OK" I DO remember, Grin! Good summary! That one I read from my parents' bookshelf. But they didn't have "The Peter Principle," because if they had, I'm sure I'd have read that, too. I read pretty much every book in the house...
Ren, the question is how much can we affect the brain development that occurs. Yes, neurons are growing and shrinking, connecting and pruning connections all the time. But assuming a decent basic level of care and intellectual stimulation, that doesn't mean that the actions we take in the world outside the brain are going to make for more or better connections. Just different ones. The child who focuses on the violin to the exclusion of all else might be "made" a musical prodigy, but at what cost? Maybe she'd have been a great researcher who discovered the cure for cancer if her parents had taken a different tack. Maybe she'd have written life-changing novels. Maybe she'd have solved a great engineering problem. As Austin said, we don't know what the opportunity cost was, what the alternative could have been. Focus isn't necessarily good for kids, particularly if it doesn't come from the kids.
Do I think we can affect the outcome of our kids' paths by what we as parents (and by what the schools) do? Yes. That's why I'm homeschooling. I think I am affecting his work ethic, his interest in learning, his feeling of being accepted for who he is, etc. Without my intervention, I don't think DS7 would have gotten that "decent basic level of intellectual stimulation."
But do I think I'm somehow making my son "smarter" by homeschooling? No. I see no evidence of that. He's just using what he's got more efficiently.
FWIW...
