Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Child Prodigy

Read this First

I appreciate the idea, and wish the Quest in the Kids mind remains, and let im invent a lot in the future.

It makes us proud to find kids device such a thing. But, I dont know if Im one of those cruel people who always under-estimate. I hate kids reciting all the Thirukkural at the age of 4 or 5. I hate them speak proud about it. And i hate the media covering it. A 5 Year old boy driving a car, and 6 year old making divine music on the Tabla.

Im not against the kids. Poor things (and great things) that have extra-ordinary talent. But Iam against the parents for expecting so much out of a child. Im sure kids would have gone under vigorous practice, before exhibiting their talent. Let kids be kids. Have them enjoy their life. I've seen parents forcing kids to Music classses and Computer classes. We all saw a few kids clearing MCSE easily... They all are nowhere to be seen now.

It is certainly delicate to find the interests in a child. Sometimes, forced habits turn good. Sometimes they suck out the plesure of living.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree with you :-(
My cousin used to recite all thirukurals by age 4..Ironically, he took french as 2nd language,and my chitti is a tamil teacher..

You could call that opportunistic,but cant follow rules in this competitive world ! what say..??
Take life as it comes :-)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and imagine a 7 year old having a good solid upbringing being widely publicized. News reel and all. Will the boy/girl have his/her legs on the ground? Probably not. And that is not exactly a good thing at the age of 6 or 7.

Anonymous said...

no matter how precociously talented a kid is,
till he or she is 18, it is still a kid. i usually pity those kids. paavam.

KRTY said...

prabhu, what an irony ? You are right.. I used to have this as my email address - takelifeasitcomes@hotmail.com.... havent checked that for years, anyway. :)

krithika, point. its just that a few parents try to achieve through their kids.

pk, spoiling their time is Maha paavam !! :)

Anonymous said...

There are only 2 kinds of prodigies - music and mathematics. Mozart was one such real child prodigy. Children who are good at memorizing things, driving cars, are not prodigies. They are freaks.

And by the way, what a stupid, stupid concept we advocate in schools - write the answer by-heart. Yuck!.

KRTY said...

deepak, it certainly is a stupid concept to ask a child to memorize things which are of no use.

Anonymous said...

Well, if the child takes interests in all this and does it on his own accord, then no issues, but I have seen so many parents force this on their kids, so that they will appear smarter.

Memorising Flag names, thirukkural, inventions-inventors are all common stuff. For one of my programmes, I had to interview this boy, who was a child prodigy.. 6 year old, plays miruthangam, thirukkural, flags, everything...you name it.. Then we asked him what he wanted to be when he was older.. he said cardiologist (note this point.. not even doctor. specifically cardiologist) so we asked him, what does a cardiologist do, and he doesn't even know what is that..

Poor fellow, parents actually even made him memorise his occupation

What can I say?

Anonymous said...

Great work by the kid..but I think his invention/model isn't new...I think , this is what is being used now ..I even saw this being installed in the Tsunami affected regions recently by some German companies.!

Am I missing something here??

KRTY said...

revathi, dont make your kid do that.. :) thats is all in your hands.

venkittu sir, thats a good thing.. but i was talking about the Kids future, when the kid does something extra-ordinary in its childhood.