Originally posted by Tweetie_bird
I have seens tons of shows about child prodigies and seen even more interviews on them. I am simply fascinated by them. There is a lot of credence given to "emotional intelligence." Psychologists know it...and we even refer to it in our daily language. If this child is "intelligent," chances are that he is also "emotionally intelligent." I mean, how is it possible to have a child know and be able to derive newton's laws at 3..yet not know how to behave in situations where their emotional intelligence is required? These kids have been looked at, prodded and spoken about all their lives. They have probably been more out of their comfort zone than we have ever been and probably already have the skills that we attest to having. I know that their maturity level may not be as high as ours, BUT, these are kids learn information at such a fast rate, I am sure they will try to keep up with us (if not already surpass us).
You have a good point in some ways, Tweetie (as usual
). I don't know. I guess you're referring to Howard Gardner's work (I met him once, actually) with the emotional intelligence. It's hard for this kid to have any friends though (own age or otherwise), which is a prime way for him to learn such things. And he probably has been out of his comfort zone a lot, but his only comfort zone appears to be with his parents. I don't think that's a good thing, as you can't learn everything from your parents. I think while he can pick it up fast, in theory, he just needs the experiences to do it, and at 12, he just doesn't have them.
I think there's a lot to be said for peer group interaction and just being in middle school and high school from experience and from classes I have taken. Honestly, what does he know about suffering through middle school? Absolutely nothing. What does he know about being in high school and having more freedom? Nothing! He hasn't been through the shared cultural experience.
It's interesting that someone mentioned being his lab partner. I dealt with a similar child who was really good at math, back in high school. He had the same control attitude with a problem we were doing. In fact, he kept insisting that he was right, without showing us why. When we all disagreed with him after we showed him why he was wrong, he still insisted he was right and burst into tears about it. We ended up doing it our way, but he was in tears.... It doesn't really matter that we were right in the end, but it showed his inability to work in a group and be part of a group. He just didn't know how to deal with us, because he had been home schooled all his life and had spent lots of quality time with mom, but not much else. His parents were really really nice people though, even if he wasn't the friendliest kid, ever.
The insurance comment is interesting too. I assume there is actuarial data that supports the decision. Either that or they were just being appropriately cautious. As someone mentioned, it is a chance with someone's health and well-being.
