![]() “Almost all of the kids we see on YouTube aren’t prodigies. And they are rare: by one loose estimate, somewhere between one in five million and one in 10 million children. This aura of the uncanny that surrounds child prodigies- clinically described as someone who demonstrates professional abilities before the age of 10, who’s not just talented as a result of hard work but who’s at the extreme end of giftedness in one area- is underscored by the fact that the psychological, behavioural and personality traits that these rare people share are little understood. If wisdom comes with age, a child who is able to write a concerto, become a chess grandmaster or tackle advanced calculus seems to be an almost supernatural phenomenon. Indeed, the fascination we have with child prodigies stems, ultimately, from their freakishness: their bucking of the norms that see these gifted kids attain a superlative skill that’s usually attained much later on in life and after having put in many years of consistent effort. “ a sense of phrasing which many people two or three or four times her age would be lucky to have. And, of course, more so in these super-competitive times, every parent thinks their kid is a genius.īut Deutscher is a veritable child prodigy, “a force of nature”, as the esteemed conductor Sir Simon Rattle has called her. Notions of ‘hot-housing’ children and ‘tiger’ parents have entered the common discourse as though pushing children to know more and to do more-and do it all more than competently-is an entirely natural thing. In some cultures, such a premium is placed on educational attainment that the number of children estimated to be receiving private tutoring has increased by a third over the last decade, according to UK-based education charity The Sutton Trust. She plays piano as well as she plays violin, which is to say, very well indeed. She composed her first sonata at age six and her first full-length opera at 10. Rather it would have been by this elfin performer’s youth-Deutscher is only 14. This would not have been caused by the music, though the recital did include a number of Deutscher’s compositions. When, in October, Alma Deutscher took to the stage at Beijing’s Poly Theatre, the audience might well have let loose a collective gasp. There is something we might all learn from children, whether they turn out to be prodigies or not.Why are our reactions to the failure of child prodigies a sense of schadenfreude?.Prodigies are believed to be a product of innate aptitude that is then cultivated through a lot of practice.
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