Coaching or teaching a prodigy

Don't you hate it when you are trying to deal with the kids, and you also have to deal with some television crew from Europe? Or when you spend a couple of hours talking to a reporter from the New York Times about how great a kid is, only to have the Times turn it into a hit piece and misquote you, making you look really nasty?

Or what about when some supermarket tabloid writes the only decent article?

I was watching a game show today, the Millionaire show. One of the questions was about a world's record holder, Balamurali Ambati. We used to call him "Bala", when being polite, or "Doogie Houser" to tease him. He graduated HS at 11, college at 13, and med school at 17.

I shouted out "He used to be my student".

Back when I was a chemistry graduate student at New York University, a really nice professor, Ed McNelis, was teaching organic chemistry. I was the TA for Bala's recitation section both semesters, and his lab section his first semester.

McNelis really took Bala under his wing. (McNelis took a LOT of people, including me, under his wing.) I remember he used to have lunch with Bala a lot, and I would join them.

After the NY Times fiasco, McNelis immediately arranged for the three of us to have lunch. I took some time to explain how I was misquoted in the Times hit piece. Seriously, I thought they would run a fluff piece, because who puts a hit piece on a 12 year old on the front page of an allegedly prestigious newspaper?

When the article came out, things were really frantic. I remember proctoring an organic chemistry final. The students were freaking out a bit, because that what pre-meds do when they take an organic chemistry final. There was some camera crew from Europe outside the classroom, and they wanted to film Bala leaving the final. That really disturbed me. I knew NYU had approved it, but I really did NOT want to have freaked-out students filmed on TV.

So, I worked out a plan. In general, the students could leave as soon as they were finished, EXCEPT they could NOT leave in the last 10-15 minutes. That time was frozen so as to allow the students to have some quiet during the end of the exam. Students who finished in the blackout time had to sit in their seats until time was called.

Bala finished about 10 minutes before time was called. He was sitting in the front. I explained there was a camera crew from Europe outside, and I didn't want to disturb all the students by having them filmed along with him. He agreed, and I dismissed him from the exam.

I found an article in a pre-med magazine about Bala, and his time taking organic chemistry. What he said about McNelis was spot on. McNelis always cared about the students, undergrad and graduate.


So, have any of you ever had to deal with a kid who was attracting a lot of publicity, either coaching them or teaching them? I think I made the association with the coaching when I was talking to DS yesterday. A kid DS used to row with is now one of the top rowers on the US Junior National Team, and made the First Eight. That made me realize that coaching or teaching a prodigy is very simialr.



When I Was Premed: Dr. Balamurali Ambati, World’s Youngest Doctor Record-Holder | PreMedLife

What do you think best prepared you during your college years to be successful in medical school?
Well, NYU has a very challenging curriculum – organic chemistry was my hardest class. And going from high school where I breezed through most of my classes to hitting a wall in organic chemistry was good preparation for showing me that I had to step my game up a notch. And that experience of a much higher level of competition was very humbling.

What would you say was the most challenging time for you during your college years as a premed?
Getting through organic chemistry was the most challenging time for me.

What’s the best advice you ever received as a college student?
Dr. Edward McNelis was my mentor and he was my organic chemistry professor. He was a great man and unfortunately he passed away several years ago. He was an exquisite gentleman, and he told me to never forget what it’s like to be a student. I think a lot of doctors forget their training years and treat students poorly.

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BobInMadison said:

.....So, have any of you ever had to deal with a kid who was attracting a lot of publicity, either coaching them or teaching them? I think I made the association with the coaching when I was talking to DS yesterday. A kid DS used to row with is now one of the top rowers on the US Junior National Team, and made the First Eight. That made me realize that coaching or teaching a prodigy is very simialr......

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No experience with prodigies, but I've always considered coaching to be a discipline of teaching. IME, many "coaches" more accurately should be considered managers.

Greenmonsters said:

No experience with prodigies, but I've always considered coaching to be a discipline of teaching. IME, many "coaches" more accurately should be considered managers.

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A good coach IS a good teacher. The best teacher I ever had in HS was my debate coach.

As to teaching prodigies...

A prodigy has advanced skills and ability in *ONE* area, not several. It is very unlikely that a prodigy's emotional and social development matches their intellectual or athletic ability.

A good sports example is Lebron James. He was at 18YOA one of the world's best athletes. People assumed that because he was a world class athlete, that he was emotionally and socially just as developed. He was not. He was perceived exactly as he was...a great big, extremely talented immature kid.

The same thing plays out over and over in professional athletics. Super athletes are molly coddled, and never emotional mature. They get to the pros, make a lot of money, and then become a rich jerk, eventually self-destructing with drugs, sex and booze. (Can anyone say, "Tiger Woods"?)

It happens to prodigies in other areas as well...being a super intelligent nuclear physicist does *not* make you a happy nuclear physicist.

So, when you work with a prodigy, you have to make sure that she emotionally and socially growing as well as intellectually or athletically growing.

One problem is parents having a really smart kid "skip" grades. School teaches not only academics, but also social and emotional skills. If a kid skips too many grades, they will not have the time necessary to mature in areas outside of their unique ability.

Interesting.

For some reason, around that time the NY Times had some reporters who seemed to absolutely HATE prodigies. Not only did they write a scathing article about a very young pre-med, but they also write a scathing article about a chess prodigy in Brooklyn.

In this case, the prodigy I knew was a bit more well-rounded than one might expect. Interesting that he went into medicine, since his best field was mathematics. He and his older brother were both unbelievable math prodigies.

I could tell this guy Bala would've been completely bored if her were in a middle school. Realize, he graduated HS at 11, turned 12 over the summer, and was taking organic chemistry in the fall, along with very, very bright sophomore pre-meds, mostly around the age of 19. And, he did better than most of them.

He really seemed socially mature for his age. Maybe part of this was because he had a mentor, Ed McNelis, who spent time keeping Bala grounded.

OTOH, there is a lot to say about skipping grades.

My maternal grandfather skipped a lot of grades. My great-grandmother had my father ready for 3rd or 4th grade before he started school. He graduated from HS at the age of 15, then spent a year in a military academy before starting at Oklahoma at the age of 16. That was VERY difficult for him socially, partly because he was so young, and partly because the "in crowd" at Oklahoma in those days were all people from the former Indian Territory, and he wasn't. My grandmother skipped one grade, and started college at the age of 17. She was a known Cherokee who was born in Muskogee in the Creek Nation, so her social life was a lot easier. My mother was tutored by her grandmother for a while, but her parents insisted she attend school at the normal rate for social reasons.

I have a niece who was a bit of a prodigy, getting almost perfect SAT scores while in middle school, and all that. She went to a private school in Long Island, and my brother and his wife really did NOT want her skipping too many grades. The school let her take advanced classes at a younger age. When she finished her junior year, the school kicked her out with a diploma because there were no more classes for her to take. So, she started college one year early.

sluggers said:

The same thing plays out over and over in professional athletics. Super athletes are molly coddled, and never emotional mature. They get to the pros, make a lot of money, and then become a rich jerk, eventually self-destructing with drugs, sex and booze. (Can anyone say, "Tiger Woods"?)

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I'm going to disagree on Tiger - I wouldn't say he's self-destructed. He still has more money than God, and has shown more maturity than many who have made mistakes. 106 wins, 79 PGA Tour wins, and 14 majors.

Instead, I will offer Todd Marinovich for your consideration as the shining example of your description above.