Here's the additional TMI that came out of trying to forward this to friends and family:
p.s. y'all
I'm not raising a prodigy.
I'm raising a well rounded smart kid.
They're both good and brilliant
but prodigies are for rich enough people to focus on one thing.
The kind of geniuses I'm raising will be burdened with multi-potentiality,
that is they'll have plenty of talent
but I haven't helped them throw themselves into a passion like the common parenting wisdom of today says to do with young kids,
"follow and nurture their interests, deeply."
I can see how that would cultivate depth, however we toil in the shallows. I have worked on the three R's, on the academic and study skills, on the "incremental vs. identity theory" that Carol Dweck says teaches a smart kid to take pride in taking risks and learning new things, instead of the dangerous pitfall that smart kids have in taking pride only in already knowing the answer which leads to risk aversion and imposter syndrome, stunted achievement, and stunted emotional development.
Maybe all this has to do with being the parent you are and raising the kid you have. Some parents seem worried about "stunting the depth" of their child. I think that's impossible and I worry about raising children who won't burn their own bridges, also about making sure they have appropriate support for success, which, for a "deeper child" is necessarily "more than their fair share".
