3rd September 2010 9:00
By Harriet Boulding
It seems impossible to pick up a newspaper this week without reading about Arran Fernandez, the child prodigy who has secured a place at Cambridge University at the age of 15. Having taken his first GCSE aged 5, there is no doubt that Aaron belongs at a top university. But does he belong there now? As a private tutor, I am no stranger to the pushy parent who wants their child to work harder, and achieve more than their peers. Taking exams early seems to be the next step towards demonstrating achievement, given than getting an A is no longer uncommon in British exams. However, at what point do we go too far, and actually damage a child’s changes of growing up happy and comfortable with themselves and their surroundings?
I believe that university is about so much more than academia. It is a chance for students to make that difficult transition from late teens to adulthood, surrounded by peers of their own age with similar concerns. I completely understand that gifted children are should not be ignored and treated like everyone else of their age, but nor should they be pushed to perform in a social group of students significantly older than they are. Many gifted children are educated at home, and parents often employ private tutors to push their children as much as they can. As a tutor I see my role as helping to expand a student’s understanding and appreciation of a subject, not to encourage them to meet milestones that they are not socially and emotionally ready to grasp.
I am not alone in these concerns. The head of the National Association for Gifted Children Jo Counsell has said that she sees no point in encouraging children to do exams early, rather they should be free to exercise their imaginations. Indeed, studies tracing the lives of gifted children show that those who were pushed rarely become happy adults, finding that they have lost the time during which they should have been developing social and emotional tools of understanding. The most famous example is Ruth Lawrence who attended Oxford University at age 12. Speaking of her childhood and her own approach to motherhood, Ruth has said that ‘hot-housing’ is a tragedy which she will not repeat with her own children. We should learn from this that tutoring and education should be about much more than passing exams and reaching milestones early.