Originally Posted by deacongirl
I have a lot of thoughts on this issue, but not enough time--I did hear Yo Yo Ma interviewed and he said he hated practicing as a child. It doesn't seem to have scarred him!

I would be very cautious about generalizing based on the experience of child prodigies to kids who aren't prodigies. Decisions that make sense for a prodigious child may not make any sense for a child with different talents and needs.