How to Raise a Genius

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Don't bring up geniuses, please. Nothing good will come of you. Attempts to drag an ordinary, clever, capable, but not outstanding child to the Calvary of genius is a disastrous path. It is very accurately described in Georgy Semyonov's story "The Star of the English School". A good family, a mother convinces a talented daughter that she must be a genius. The girl goes out of her way, becomes the star of the English school, and then year after year cannot enter the Institute of Foreign Languages. They all crashed. Dad, a handsome man and a boss, died suddenly, my mother went to work as a servant in an insane asylum, from where her star of the English school practically did not leave …

Evgeniya Mikhailova - the author of psychological detective novels. She recently published a new novel, How Fresh the Roses Were in Hell. She has one more "profession". She is the mother of a well-known physicist in the international community. He is now a professor at the University of California. Unusual abilities were discovered very early. At the age of three, the boy spoke English, at school he was the winner of all Olympiads in mathematics and physics, then he became one of the most talented students at the institute. During his studies, he received offers from various universities in the world. In America, he became one of the youngest doctors of science. At the same time, he is an extremely modest person, he does not like it when his mother talks about him. That's why she doesn't tell.

The point here, probably, is that no one can objectively assess the abilities of their child. It is necessary to help develop them, but it is better to underestimate a bit, make allowances for your love and subjectivity and accept what a child - small and adult - can handle. If the unusual, outstanding abilities of your child leave almost no one in doubt … Here the word "upbringing", in my opinion, has nothing to do with it. The path of a genius is predestined from above. And parents will have enough problems when they realize how much the world is not created for geniuses. How much more helpless they are than an ordinary, average person in everyday life, in career calculations, considerations of benefits, and so on.

Parents of geniuses in our time can only advise not to be too sad and take philosophically the usual order of things: your children will never be the most satisfied, self-satisfied, able to make money and find the meaning of life in this. You need to be able to be proud of it.

Talent and happiness are not the same thing

Among the talented and brilliant people with whom fate brought me, there were no happy in the simplest sense - stable and around the clock - there were no. And it couldn't be. Any gift is a rise of inspiration, a constant search, overcoming: misunderstanding of others, the boundaries of the possible. This is the pain and suffering of a high intellect and a defenseless soul, a constant fear that an unusual gift may leave … I have a book "Death, Love and Men of Elena Mayorova." This is a study of a terrible tragedy - the pair death of two too talented people: Lena and her husband. Those close to them loved them, but no one managed to detain them in their impetuous flight. Too much was against them. Great people always lack love and recognition. No mom knows what scale a person groans and learns to suckle her breasts. Therefore, I consider upbringing to be admiring support, approval for trifles, compliments, demonstration of respect for the rights of the child, and in the future - democratic polemics in controversial issues. Moreover, we are talking mainly about the assessment of moral qualities, subtle and vivid emotions. Any innate gift will inevitably become a matter of life. Difficult business. Therefore, it is very important to nourish a growing person with love, like vitamins, so that there is enough strength.

I consider any punishment, psychological and physical humiliation of children to be crimes of adults. They kill soul, ability, kindness. And the retribution is worse than a court sentence for murder.

Age of genius

Once upon a time I hosted an author's program on TV "Adults about Children". The well-known children's poet Valentin Berestov was my expert. He wrote a couple of quatrains for each broadcast. And he once said such a thing: "A child at 12 is smarter than himself, what an adult he will be." Recently, a professor at one university said the same thought in a more extravagant form: “What smart kids are there. I just wonder where these idiot students come from. " Well, we admit, of course, that the students in question have never been such smart children that they impressed the professor. But the age of ten or twelve is a really special time. Children's spontaneity is combined with very subtle, detailed observations, thoughts are bright, figurative, the way of expression is light and unexpected. I have a friend Pasha, he is 12 years old, early in the morning he stands at our entrance with his blind shepherd. He hugs my dog Junya and says: “How I missed you. You are such a beautiful, joyful dog that if I were a dog, I would marry you. " He notices everything, he makes amazing discoveries, he endlessly fantasizes, his capabilities could probably be developed to perfection … But he is a child from a hopelessly difficult family, for his parents he is a slave without the right to vote. Where will he go from his childhood - I'm scared to think about it … He has a rich imagination. In the meantime, he is exactly a genius of feelings and perception.

My grandson

Our Anton has not yet grown to the age of genius. He's just a kid. But it looks like he is unlikely to become a serious scientist like my son. A completely different personality option. There are no special achievements in teaching, except perhaps - an almost experienced Internet user. Although - who knows. They change so much. Its niche today is an active, conscious democracy in a pronounced, aphoristic form. He is always ready to make a speech in defense of the oppressed, sometimes standing on his head. They send him to school in California at the age of five, and he immediately began to gather an audience of high school students. They fall with laughter. At home, he constantly finds a reason for journalism. Saturday. My son's only partially free day. The older girl Nastya is cleaning her room. Anton rushes head over heels around the house and yard, playing all the games at once. Then suddenly, with a serious look, he appears on the threshold of the dad's room, who worked at night and has not yet got up.

- May I ask you a serious question?

- Of course.

- Why in this house we do the hardest work with Nastya, when some are asleep.

It was a rhetorical question, after which you can again slide down the railing of the stairs, grab the cat and say: "It seems to me that this cat did not know affection in life."

He can become an actor, parliamentarian, president, just a funny and witty person - all this is not the essence yet. Far. The main thing is that now, of course, he is a genius. For those who love him. Oh, what will happen to him by the age of genius …

Children are brilliant

I invite adults to take responsibility for this. And for the fact that sometimes cruel, greedy, limited people grow out of wonderful children. They can make a career, succeed in business, and appear in politics, while remaining pitiful creatures in essence. It seems to me that their age of genius was ruined by the wrong adults, wrong values, wrong background. We cannot educate Einstein, Newton, Sakharov, Ranevskaya - this is the work of higher powers. But we can consider the kindness, sensitivity, mercy of our children a genius and cherish this more than all values. Because that's the way it is. These qualities need development, support and protection. The loss of humanity is the loss of the future.