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How to
Create Geniuses
Stunning news! I've discussed this topic previously,
but I've just learned from Dr.
Penny Smith that the famous 20th-century mathematician,
Paul Erdos, was a student of the same László Rátz
of the same Lutheran High School
in Budapest that graduated Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann,
and Edward Teller in the early years of the
last century. Add that to the "Italian School" that included Enrico Fermi, Bruno Rossi, Bruno Pontecorvo,
and Emilio Segre and you've
accounted for about half the world's leading physicists in the first half
of the 20th century. These geniuses came from two locations and were obviously
inspired by two men: László
Rátz, and the Chairman
of the physics department at the University of Rome. It has been known since
time immemorial that high intelligence is synonymous with works of genius.
However, it's also clear that intelligence is a necessary, but by no means
sufficient condition for works of genius. But here, we might have the germ
of an answer. Somehow, these two men breathed the afflatus of genius into
their charges. László Rátz held math competitions,
published a math newspaper, and gave little prizes to has students. Eugene
Wigner said that "no one else could evoke evoke a subject like Rátz".
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly in his book "Creativity", , pg. 174, says,
"What made these teachers influential? Two
main factors stand out. First, the teachers noticed the student, believed
in his or her abilities, and cared. Second, the teacher showed care
by giving the child extra work to do, greater challenges than the rest of
the class received. Wigner describes Rátz as a friendly man
who loaned his science books to interested students and gave them tutorials
and special tests to challenge their superior abilities."
(It sounds as though Rátz may have been
an unsung pedagogical genius in his own right.)
What's
striking about this is that there's no way that the Lutheran High School
in Budapest had all or Europe's brightest between 1912 and 1931. There would
have been equally intelligent teenagers in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen,
Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, London, St. Petersgurg, Athens, and Vienna,
to name only European capitol cities. This underscores the fact that high
intelligence is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for high achievement
in physics and mathematics. (Paul Erdos discovered negative numbers when
he was four. John von Neumann was highly precocious.) This is not the outcome
I'd have sought, but this is the outcome we've got.
Bottom Line: Can we today produce outstandingly capable
adults by nurturing very-bright teenagers? Society has known for centuries
that its geniuses tend to be extremely intelligent. Hans Eysenck,
in his book "Genius", concludes that the typical genius
has "an IQ some three
to four standard deviations above the mean." "In the long run
such precision does not matter very much; the main point is that high IQ
is one of the features of genius, and apparently a universal, and hence
probably a necessary, one."
On the other hand, it's also agreed that intelligence is a necessary but not a sufficient condition
for genius. Even Sir Francis
Galton agreed with this assessment. So the question becomes: "What
does it take to inspire an extremely brilliant individual to produce great
works?" Many hypotheses have been advanced, including unhappy childhoods
and personality disorders. However, the experiences with Lutheran High School
and with the physics department at the University of Rome suggest that another
way to arrive at this happy outcome may be inspired teaching of the hyperbright
in the watershed high school and college years
I had noticed this with the mathematical prodigies
in the Johns Hopkins SMPY (Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth) program.
Many of them drop away during their teenage years when crises such as the
switch to adult expectations of productivity, and gender and conformity
issues reach critical stages. Shepherding adolescents past this Scylla and
Charybdis might do great things for their adult lives. It also fits Ellen
Winner's and David Feldman's description of the need for coaching and special
training at this point in life if a music, chess, or athletic prodigy is
to make it into the front ranks. It might be exciting to try an experiment
to see whether genius can be coached and cultivated in hyperbright adolescents.
(I have always been of the opinion that geniuses shouldn't have to starve
in garrets to deliver their gifts to a belatedly grateful world.)
I feel it
should also be stressed that genius is certainly not required of the hyperbright. From the standpoint of the people we're trying
to encourage, it should absolutely be fun--should be honored and applauded.
They should do what they love and love what they do, without our expecting
anything from them other than what spontaneously flows forth. Like many
of the rest of us, these individuals love to learn and love to solve problems.
But the fountain will flow far more freely if it's based upon "want
to's" rather than upon "shoulds". Any significant enhancement
of productivity over what might be had without special coaching would make
the cap well worth the game. Someone certainly doesn't have to become a
genius to be worthy of society's special attention and appreciation.
What do you think? Click here
for a further discussion.
I
think this may be a momentous realization.
9-Year-Old
College Prodigy Sho Yano
Pat Byrnes,
author of the syndicated cartoon strip, "Monkey
House", has forwarded an article about 9-year-old Chicagoan*, Sho
Yano, who has just enrolled as a freshman at Loyola University in
Chicago. I want to thank Pat even though he's threatened me with eternal
damnation for introducing him to the Mega Test. (He doesn't have time to
work on the Mega, and it just sits there and taunts him from the other side
of the room. But hey! what can you expect from a guy who collaborates with
James Finn Garner, author of "Politically
Correct Bedtime Stories"**?) (Heh, heh. Just kidding.
Thanks, Pat!)
It amazes me that major universities don't seek
out prodigies like Sho Yano, Michael Kearney, and Greg Smith. Instead,our
very brightest find it difficult to receive scholarships, and tend to be
blocked from the best schools. (One bright exception to this is Caltech's
Chris
Hirata, who was put on a fast track by his wise and supportive Deerfield
High School faculty, and by Caltech.)