Intelligence

Just finished reading How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence by Glenn Doman. It is the sister book How to Teach Your Baby to Read that finished some days ago.

You could well imagine what's there. Encouragement, reassurance, you baby is a genius, and so forth. Well, it does give some solid advice on the way to teach young kids reading, mathematics, and general knowledge, but these are side-dishes. The book is a best seller because parents love to be reassured that their children would do well - if not brilliantly.

And the same for the book Outliers, which my friend VW recently talked about (see http://vwswong.blogspot.com/2009/07/outliers.html).

Yes, it is a rosy picture. They think they are able, and so they are able. I have a deja vu feeling of reading Publius Vergilius Maro.

But that's not true. What Malcolm Gladwell’s study actually showed was one would be successful if, and only if, they have the wit and are being encouraged. In the language of logic, all those extra training and encouragement are necessary condition - but not sufficient condition - for becoming successful.

Alas, as a father myself, I am not spared - sometimes I choose to forget about logic.

PS. Of course, if our primary objective is (for us and for our children) having an enjoyable process, the chance of being successful doesn't really matter.