The Myth of Prodigy
How often are youth and teens labeled prodigies-or failures? Malcolm Gladwell was one of the top runners in the country when he was in middle school. As an adult he was only an average runner, but a very talented writer. I just received an e-mail from a young man who is now doing very well working for Fidelity. In High School, he was a great kid, but not someone who was seen as a great student. He is, as Gladwell talks about below, a “great doer.”
The APS observer has an interview with Gladwell on The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters. In it, Gladwell explains that childhood success isn’t an indicator of adult achievement. Here are a couple of notable quotes from Gladwell:
“What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement.”
“A study of 200 highly accomplished adults found that just 34 percent had been considered in any way precocious as children. He also read a long list of historical geniuses who had been notably undistinguished as children — a list including Copernicus, Rembrandt, Bach,
Anyone who works with teens and youth should keep this in mind.
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