The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
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Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#2It's hard to identify the thesis here. Is the thesis that intelligence is a myth? If so, the post provides precious little evidence in support.
Is it that smart children are overburdened by expectations and anxiety? If so, the "evidence" is a set of personal anecdotes and hyperbolic generalizations. It is, quite simply, not factual that teenagers are made to study 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. If that occurred, the teenager would die.
> by junwuwriter 28 minutes ago
> WRITTEN BY Jun Wu Single Mom Writer, Technologist, Poet: Tech, AI, Data Science, Psych, Parenting, Edu, Life, Work,Poetry etc. Find Me: https://junwuwriter.com
Ah. Got it.
Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#3It's hard to identify the thesis here. Is the thesis that intelligence is a myth? If so, the post provides precious little evidence in support. Is it that smart children are overburdened by expectations and anxiety? If so, the "evidence" is a set of personal anecdotes and hyperbolic generalizations. It is, quite simply, not factual that teenagers are made to study 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. If that occurred,…
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Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#4There is a distinction between the pressure that comes from growing up in a "tiger family" and the consequences of growing up with the "smart" label, and I feel like the author is conflating the two. Personally, growing up with the label (but not the parental pressure) was one of the best things that could have happened for me and my education - the fact that others believed (whether true or not) that I was lightyears ahead of the class afforded me numerous opportunities - special classes, programs, etc. And more importantly, the fact that I believed it meant that I was able to operate free of insecurities or imposter syndrome that so many of my peers faced. Did it inflate my ego a bit as a kid? Sure - but I had good role models to look up to who helped me tamp that down a bit, and I had plenty of time to figure out that I wasn't the smartest kid in the world once I got to MIT (which I might not have gotten into had I not so fervently believed I would!).
I can't comment on what it's like to grow up with the extreme parental pressure the author describes - I didn't experience that, and I'm sorry she had to go through that. But I think that's an entirely separate issue from growing up with the "gifted" label.
Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#5It's hard to identify the thesis here. Is the thesis that intelligence is a myth? If so, the post provides precious little evidence in support. Is it that smart children are overburdened by expectations and anxiety? If so, the "evidence" is a set of personal anecdotes and hyperbolic generalizations. It is, quite simply, not factual that teenagers are made to study 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. If that occurred,…
It reads like a 1000 word humblebrag.
Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#6The "show pony" remark in the article, I think, has a large grain of truth. There is something cringeworthy about being singled out in that manner.
Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#7It's hard to identify the thesis here. Is the thesis that intelligence is a myth? If so, the post provides precious little evidence in support. Is it that smart children are overburdened by expectations and anxiety? If so, the "evidence" is a set of personal anecdotes and hyperbolic generalizations. It is, quite simply, not factual that teenagers are made to study 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. If that occurred,…
She's a single mom who has a son.
It doesn't seem to me that she has an understanding of how much more picky females are than males when it comes to sexual selection. Her son needs to compete hard in his life, whether she likes it or not.
Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#8There is a distinction between the pressure that comes from growing up in a "tiger family" and the consequences of growing up with the "smart" label, and I feel like the author is conflating the two. Personally, growing up with the label (but not the parental pressure) was one of the best things that could have happened for me and my education - the fact that others believed (whether true or not) that I was lightyear…
Seems to me that having the label gives you confidence that if you think you understand something then you are probably correct. You can then build on that to learn the next thing quicker.
Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#9I have suffered from this personally. I was a "smart" kid. I was always top of my class till 10th standard. Everybody called me smart and intelligent. The schoolwork till 10th never challenged me. But when the complexity increase with pre college courses and STEM I was lost because I never had tackled this kind of difficulty before. I went into depression for couple of years. I was saved by Hamming's "You and Your research" and Learning how to learn. I restarted believing and learning again with growth mindset.
Re: The Intelligence Myth – Why I cringe when someone tells me my child is smart
#10It's hard to identify the thesis here. Is the thesis that intelligence is a myth? If so, the post provides precious little evidence in support. Is it that smart children are overburdened by expectations and anxiety? If so, the "evidence" is a set of personal anecdotes and hyperbolic generalizations. It is, quite simply, not factual that teenagers are made to study 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. If that occurred,…
It reads like a 1000 word humblebrag.
Success is a social construct. Intelligence is a social construct.