Status: Under Construction
This is a summary of a video I watched few days ago, which made me ponder for a while.
Background
When I was in Primary 2, I took my mom’s textbook and started doing Additional Mathematics out of curiosity. I really enjoyed it and part of the reason is that I could get praised by my parents. I was happy and cosidered myself as a clever kid.
Many years later, when I was attempting to IMO training camp in Semenanjung Malaysia, I soon realized there are lots of kid better than me. At some point, I felt regret for not improving much after my Primary 2. I questioned myself why I am not as good as they are. In my opinion, there could be two main factors:
- Oppurtunity Gap and Lack of Vision. (I will write another post discussing about oppurtunity gap in the future)
I have no idea there is a thing called Mathematical Olympiad until I was thirteen years old. I have no idea what is mathematics beyond Additional Mathematics. I have no idea what is programming and all other good stuff. The situation of asymmetric information and lack of guidance made me stop improving. Other than that, in some of the coutries, students can skip grade if they are ‘ready’. But it is not common to skip grade in my country (at least I never saw a case), so I kinda lost the oppurtunity to save some of my time.
- I am just not hardworking enough, because my mindset told me I can do most of the thing easily, which sets up to the failure. This is the reason why I think this video reveals the truth.
Gifted kids are actually Special Needs
What are the problems
- Gifted kids lose their oppurtunities to develop their study habits when they are young.
It is counter-intuitive for the gifted kids to study when the syllabus is too easy for them. Sometimes, some of the homeworks are just too easy for them and they quickly find study boring. Most of the time, they tend to study only few days before the exam. Other way of speaking, they train themselves to pass the exam using their raw intellect. When the syllabus become harder as they grew up, they do not equipped with the proper study habit that they need and their raw intellect can no longer compete with other students. As a result, they hit a wall later in their life. This strikes their confidence because it doesn’t match with their imagination.
- We assume gifted kids can achieve something easier than others, but forgot what it really takes to live up the high expectations by parents or teachers.
We forget that in order to achieve a greater goal, it takes more effort, which is not what gifted kids do in an environment that is considered relatively simple to them.
What are the consequences
- The distance between expectations and reality forms a embarrasing gap in gifted kid’s mind.
How to help gifted kids
For gifted kids:
- Live up to the expectations
- Lower down the expectations
For supporters:
- Give them bigger challenge and have faith in them. Move at a faster pace rather than slowing down>