Von Neumann had the full-time 1:1 attention of a (presumably brilliant) nanny and significant 1:1 time from several additional expert private tutors starting fr

Von Neumann had the full-time 1:1 attention of a (presumably brilliant) nanny and significant 1:1 time from several additional expert private tutors starting from an early age, as well as a ton of parental support. That is way more useful than sitting in any classroom. Then he was the kind of kid who liked to walk around town doing arithmetic calculations in his head, and was passionately curious about everything and spent tons of time reading throughout his childhood. By the time he got to school he was several years more prepared than most of the other students. The dude was obviously very clever, but it’s not like you can learn to speak several languages and understand advanced mathematics from scratch just by staring at the wall with no input or feedback. My 2-year-old has a bigger vocabulary and better grammar than any kids his age at the local playground. That’s because we read challenging books together 2+ hours per day, not because he is some kind of superhuman genius. He also runs faster and with more stamina – because he gets a ton more practice than most running and playing outside. On the other hand, he doesn’t fluently speak 4 languages like the kids whose parents speak 4 languages to them daily, he isn’t so good yet at climbing or throwing or drawing since he isn’t very excited about those skills/activities yet and doesn’t practice them regularly. It’s not a priority for me, but I would not be at all surprised if he ends up learning basic calculus before age 10.