Training a Genius

Harold G. McCurdy, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, did a study on the development of genius. In the process, he studied the biographical information on twenty geniuses, and found that they shared several important characteristics during their early lifetime:

  1. Warm, loving, and responsive attention by parents and other adults – Credible Messengers
  2. Very little association with other children outside the family – Safe, Joyful Home
  3. A great deal of opportunity to explore their own interests – Incremental Release

Smithsonian’s Recipe for Genius

More of family and less of school, more of parents and less of peers, more creative freedom and less formal lessons.

Think of Thomas Edison, who was considered a slow learner. His mother decided to educate him at home, focusing on the things he was most intested in. As a result, it stirred his imagination, enabling him to became a great inventor.

Formula For Raising Children

Ellen White taught Dorothy Moore this formula for raising children. As I read these essentials for raising children, I can see how they are categories of the top three priorities we cannot fail to execute as a parent, which are: becoming credible messengers, developing a safe home, and incrementally releasing our children into their noble callings.

  1. Patience for child readiness to handle the tasks.
  2. Tailoring programs to each child’s unique interests, aptitudes and abilities for instant motivation; using older students to help the younger, and the stronger helping the weaker.
  3. Using self-taught and teacher friendly methods and materials, instead of requiring each child to digest the same set of books, regardless of his uniqueness.
  4. Balancing study with work, hand in hand with parents or teachers; and sharing authority commensurate with children’s performances.
  5. Balancing home industry materialism with home and community service.
  6. Granting abundant freedom to creatively explore.
  7. Providing many warm adult responses in lieu of rote homework.

Permalink Posted by Chris Hogan on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 16:09 PM