3 ms·

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

53 points by Jaggu 19y ago

ivankirigin 19y ago
Secret?
nevinera 19y ago
it's pretty easy to tell the difference in a brief conversation too. look for comments about how smart you are, or how 'i could never do that', versus comments like 'its so cool that you know all this stuff', or 'im not very interested in that'
- peregrine 18y ago
  I don't understand what your trying to say here...
qaexl 19y ago
This goes hand in hand with this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78739 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78739 (Bipolar Lisp Programmers, or "Brilliant Failures") I found this article two weeks ago: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/ http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/ It references the SciAm article, and was written to be more accessible. Thanks for posting the Scientific American one. I had been keeping my eyes open for that one.
downer 19y ago
Either Crick or Watson said, "if you want intelligent children, marry an intelligent woman."
- falsestprophet 19y ago
  "marry" how quaint
zach 19y ago
Another thing to bear in mind, and it's so difficult because of parental pride, is that precocity is not a virtue. In fact, those who feel like they're "prodigies" or "gifted" more often fall into the trap described here. I know I did. Parents are made to feel like there's a scorecard -- that your child should walk, talk and read by so many months. That can be useful to identify learning disabilities, but it otherwise is not helpful. There's no causal influence between someone being a late talker, early reader or whatever and being better at anything at age 12 or 16. There is a correlation, as you'd expect, but it's not like kids are losing something if they're "late" to develop skills. Growing up is a marathon, not a sprint to an age of three (or five, or nine) when everything sets like Jell-O. Malcolm Gladwell has a great lecture about how our exaggerated interest in prodigies leads to erroneous assumptions about achievement. Here's a summary: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2026 http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?...
- zach 19y ago
  Bonus Gladwell of relevance, if anyone's interested: An article about Stanley Kaplan, the original teacher of the "unteachable" SAT. Thesis: "ability cannot be separated from effort." Examined Life: http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/2001/2001_12_17_a_kaplan.htm http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/2001/2001_12_17_a_kaplan.htm And then, on raising kids in general... well, maybe you, the parent, are a lot less important than you think: Do Parents Matter? http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/1998/1998_08_17_a_harris.htm http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/1998/1998_08_17_a_harris.htm
- damien 19y ago
  On the contrary, people like Richard Feynman and Edward Teller were all late talkers. Einstein did not speak until he was 3 years old: http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1999_06_24_newyorktimes.html http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1999_06_24_newy...

53 points by Jaggu 19y ago

Secret?

it's pretty easy to tell the difference in a brief conversation too. look for comments about how smart you are, or how 'i could never do that', versus comments like 'its so cool that you know all this stuff', or 'im not very interested in that'

peregrine 18y ago
I don't understand what your trying to say here...

qaexl 19y ago

This goes hand in hand with this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78739 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78739 (Bipolar Lisp Programmers, or "Brilliant Failures") I found this article two weeks ago: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/ http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/ It references the SciAm article, and was written to be more accessible. Thanks for posting the Scientific American one. I had been keeping my eyes open for that one.

downer 19y ago

Either Crick or Watson said, "if you want intelligent children, marry an intelligent woman."

falsestprophet 19y ago
"marry" how quaint

zach 19y ago

Another thing to bear in mind, and it's so difficult because of parental pride, is that precocity is not a virtue. In fact, those who feel like they're "prodigies" or "gifted" more often fall into the trap described here. I know I did. Parents are made to feel like there's a scorecard -- that your child should walk, talk and read by so many months. That can be useful to identify learning disabilities, but it otherwise is not helpful. There's no causal influence between someone being a late talker, early reader or whatever and being better at anything at age 12 or 16. There is a correlation, as you'd expect, but it's not like kids are losing something if they're "late" to develop skills. Growing up is a marathon, not a sprint to an age of three (or five, or nine) when everything sets like Jell-O. Malcolm Gladwell has a great lecture about how our exaggerated interest in prodigies leads to erroneous assumptions about achievement. Here's a summary: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2026 http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?...

zach 19y ago
Bonus Gladwell of relevance, if anyone's interested: An article about Stanley Kaplan, the original teacher of the "unteachable" SAT. Thesis: "ability cannot be separated from effort." Examined Life: http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/2001/2001_12_17_a_kaplan.htm http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/2001/2001_12_17_a_kaplan.htm And then, on raising kids in general... well, maybe you, the parent, are a lot less important than you think: Do Parents Matter? http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/1998/1998_08_17_a_harris.htm http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/1998/1998_08_17_a_harris.htm
damien 19y ago
On the contrary, people like Richard Feynman and Edward Teller were all late talkers. Einstein did not speak until he was 3 years old: http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1999_06_24_newyorktimes.html http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1999_06_24_newy...