Klarinet Archive - Posting 000440.txt from 2002/03

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Precocious children
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 10:28:53 -0500

In Tony Wakefield's interesting posting about Julian Bliss (about whom I
know nothing) he commented that Bliss is studying in the US because the
British teachers consulted offered the opinion that they don't like to
teach precocious children. It is a statement worth examining.

There are probably few hard statistics on the subject, but it appears
from the limited evidence that real precocity in children (the kind
exhibited by Mozart, Mendelsson, Gauss, etc.) just doesn't last.
Further that the vast preponderance of exceptional children do not carry
that exceptional behavior into adulthood, though some do, of course.

There certainly are exceptions, including the incredible precosity of
the three I mentioned above. But whether Bliss is part of this group
cannot be concluded at this time. As a result, it is not surprising
that many teachers, even beyond the British examples cited, just don't
want to deal with them. And the reason for this apparent anomoly is
that, in the long run, it is more of a waste of time than not.

The few cases that have hard documentation and that deal with prodigious
children whose lives have been followed, show that such events are
impossible to predict with accuracy, but that more such children have
not succeeded than those who have. And those who fall into the arena of
non success often do so with difficult or tragic endings, such as the
case of Michael Rabin, perhaps one of the most studied of such
prodigious children.

I'm not disputing Tony's post in the slightest, and I wish Bliss the
very best of good fortune, but I point out that the British teachers who
would not take him have a very good basis for that decision. It leads
to tragedy more often than not.
--
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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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