Smash Williams
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2008
- Messages
- 1,735
There was a really good NYTimes Magazine article on the Ajax youth program last week a few days after the paper ran a story on an 11 (?) year old boy and 15 year old girl moving to Russia to train with the Bolshoi Ballet, and it got me thinking about the hypocrisy involved with "child prodigies."
In academics and the 'high arts' like classical music, ballet, painting and whatnot, freakishly skilled prodigies are celebrated, and no one questions if they're being exploited by being forced to study or practice for hours upon hours, if they put out CDs or go on concert tours, if they're packed off to college at 12 years old even when they're clearly not socially ready for it no matter how bright they are.
And the trend isn't new. heck, it goes back to Mozart and before him. Humans, for whatever reason, have a fascination with young people doing very adult things. And let's be clear here - child prodigies in any art are not as sophisticated or mature as the adults in those fields. You can clearly tell the difference in a 9-year-old pianist and a 40 year old playing the same piece with a similar technical proficiency. What makes the kids notable is usually only the outstanding technical skill level for their age.
The lone exception is dance. Ballet, like most sports, depends on flexibility and muscle strength which only develops at a certain age, so you physically can't do pointe work before a certain age, but SeriousDanceSchools work their younger kids just as hard.
Now, there's obviously less inherent risk in touring as a 12 year old touring violinist, being a 9 year old college freshman and sailing around the world by yourself at 16, though I would love to see long-term studies on the impact being a child prodigy has on social development (I suspect the suicide rate is much, much higher among those who never developed into adult leaders in their field than your general population). Still, if you're saying a 16 year old (who obviously wasn't forced into the boat) is being exploited by the family, don't you have to say the same thing about all families with kids doing freakishly mature things for their age?
After reading both of those stories and the differing reaction to them (a general trend of 'go for your dreams!' to the ballet story and 'the system is exploiting the poor children!' to the soccer one), I'm very hesitant to criticize a family with a 'child prodigy' in sports because we're so quick to celebrate a family with a child prodigy in something else.
In academics and the 'high arts' like classical music, ballet, painting and whatnot, freakishly skilled prodigies are celebrated, and no one questions if they're being exploited by being forced to study or practice for hours upon hours, if they put out CDs or go on concert tours, if they're packed off to college at 12 years old even when they're clearly not socially ready for it no matter how bright they are.
And the trend isn't new. heck, it goes back to Mozart and before him. Humans, for whatever reason, have a fascination with young people doing very adult things. And let's be clear here - child prodigies in any art are not as sophisticated or mature as the adults in those fields. You can clearly tell the difference in a 9-year-old pianist and a 40 year old playing the same piece with a similar technical proficiency. What makes the kids notable is usually only the outstanding technical skill level for their age.
The lone exception is dance. Ballet, like most sports, depends on flexibility and muscle strength which only develops at a certain age, so you physically can't do pointe work before a certain age, but SeriousDanceSchools work their younger kids just as hard.
Now, there's obviously less inherent risk in touring as a 12 year old touring violinist, being a 9 year old college freshman and sailing around the world by yourself at 16, though I would love to see long-term studies on the impact being a child prodigy has on social development (I suspect the suicide rate is much, much higher among those who never developed into adult leaders in their field than your general population). Still, if you're saying a 16 year old (who obviously wasn't forced into the boat) is being exploited by the family, don't you have to say the same thing about all families with kids doing freakishly mature things for their age?
After reading both of those stories and the differing reaction to them (a general trend of 'go for your dreams!' to the ballet story and 'the system is exploiting the poor children!' to the soccer one), I'm very hesitant to criticize a family with a 'child prodigy' in sports because we're so quick to celebrate a family with a child prodigy in something else.