Juvenile geniuses
I’ve seen plenty of articles and TV shows of kids who are super smart for their age. Then there are the juvenile geniuses that finish school and university as teenagers—it’s insane.
I wonder what their lives are like when they grow up.
How do you deal with it?
I usually read the articles (or watch the shows) and I’m a little jealous. Why couldn’t the genius gene have been bestowed upon me? I was just the run of the mill, hardworking, smart kid (because I had zero other talents).
Then again, I can’t help but wonder, if I was that smart, would I have had a chance at a normal life?
I don’t mean to offend the parents of gifted children and I don’t think they’re doing a bad thing by encouraging their children to do what they love. I’m just wondering.
If I was a parent to an insanely gifted child, I would probably consider putting them in a normal school for them to have a normal life. However, wouldn’t that be doing them a disservice? Let’s be honest, that child is not normal and other kids will pick up on that quickly—the child will be marked as weird. Your child will be intellectually decades ahead of all the other children without even trying.
You will have to send your little genius to a school that caters to ‘gifted’ kids because I feel like that will be the only place where they will be considered normal. That will be the one place where they will be surrounded by other abnormally gifted children and fit in. Those schools are probably also where they will meet their friends and partners.
Are they happy?
Then, if you’re that smart, don’t normal people seem mind-numbingly boring? What’s worse is that it’s impossible to avoid the normal people—aka the massive majority of the population.
I mean, what do those interactions feel like? Does it feel like the way I feel when I talk to young children? I’m just wondering out loud here, but how frustrating must it be to be that intelligent? Even people in your own family won’t understand you. Is it lonely? Is it depressing?
So, if your IQ is sky high and you’ve had the misfortune of stumbling upon this post, drop me an email and tell me about your experience. Your perspective will be highly appreciated. My contact details are below.
Lastly
What do you think about juvenile geniuses? Let me know in the comments below.
Michelle
P.S. If you’d like to contact me, feel free to comment below, send an email to thatmichelleperson@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @M_ClutterBox.
Richard Bist
I grew up with someone like this, extremely smart, photographic memory, aced all their classes in school without breaking a sweat. But they weren’t happy. Their parents pushed them to always do more, join more school clubs, take all the advanced courses, and they had no time for a life.
I think being ‘gifted’ would both be wonderful and a curse. How it plays out depends on the parents, whether they let their child be a child, or if they push them so hard they end up missing out on having fun.
That Michelle Person
Oh geez, poor kid.
Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂