11-year-old in grade 8

Why are some people intellectually superior to others? This question appears especially topical for parents who see in their children the marks of a genius as soon as they are born and picture their offspring as Nobel Prize winners. What they can learn from literature on the subject, the Internet, their friends who happen to be experts in this field points to one thing: you have to develop the child since yearly years.

What are the pluses and minuses of this phenomenon? Below is an interview — not with a teacher, biologist, or psychologist — but with a mother, the most interested and competent person in what concerns her child. Her name is Marharyta Vitriakova and she is a nuclear physicist. Her daughter Sofia, aged 11, is now in grade 8 at the prestigious Holosiivsky Lyceum in Kyiv. The girl is studying combinatorics and advanced mathematics. Sofia loves to spend her free time painting, taking pictures, reading books, and making fashion designs. She attends classes at the Fashion Industry Studio and wants to become a fashion designer.

Ms. Vitriakova, what made you, a professional nuclear physicist, take interest in pedagogy?

“I’m a graduate of Moscow Technology Institute and I majored in nuclear reactors and power installations, but my parents were teachers, so I owe my first pedagogical ideas to them. I remember taking Sofia to a district children’s polyclinic and the consulting physician asking me, ‘How old is your daughter? What can she do? Is she learning to read? Can she solve arithmetic problems? Have you considered taking up early childhood development?’

“I was stunned. I thought I’d been doing all I was supposed to in order to help my child develop the best way, but there I was being told that I had been simply marking time. I did some thinking, bought books by Glen Doman and Masaru Ibuka. I read them and realized that the early childhood development method was exactly what my Sofia needed and that it was in my interests to do my utmost to make it work.

“There were no handbooks on the subject at the time, so I had to make all the cards. I used magazines, brochures, old leaflets, etc. We started by learning to read using Glen Doman’s method. The results were fantastic! After about a month of regular sessions my child (then two years old) started reading books. I proceeded to expand her knowledge concerning plants, animals, car models, national flags, currencies, artists, anatomy, etc.

“When she was two and a half, we took up mathematics. Now I know that it was a mistake on my part. It was hard for Sofia to switch to another science. Had I started developing my daughter in all directions at the same time, the results would have been better. As it was, we discarded the Doman cards. I still regret having done that. If I had been as knowledgeable in this field as I am now, I would have done everything systematically and my child would have been able to perform calculations with large numbers in her mind, the way all these ‘human calculators’ can do. But then I purchased Zaitsev’s books and cards when they appeared on our Petrivka book market, so we were able to fill the gaps in our mathematics department using his method. We are pleased with the results.”

Some believe that early childhood development projects are meant to relieve parents of considerable sums, rather than benefit their children, considering that every parent will be happy to hear that his/her child is the smartest of all. What goal did you personally pursue?

“I wanted my child to be clever and do more than just read, calculate, and reason. I wanted her to have a well-developed memory and a great ability to apply herself, work hard, and think in an unconventional way. In fact, this is what early childhood development is aimed at.”

Some experts believe that children should not study at such an accelerated rate because it robs them of childhood joys.

“This is one of those very common mistakes. Doman, for example, believes that teachers who help their six- or seven-year-old pupils learn to read perform a pedagogic feat. In fact, teaching a two- or three-year-old child to read is much easier. When we say that teaching after three [years of age] is too later, we do not mean that it is too late to learn the ABC or basic arithmetic, but that it is too late to boost the child’s brain power. Early childhood development offers a method that allows parents to develop their child’s talents earlier and better than on the standard approach.

“I have studied the statistics and watched the pupils (I teach an optional class in critical thinking at various schools), so I can say that early childhood development lays the foundations for a given individual’s future achievements. The brain starts developing even before the child is born. The latest studies show that after that this process is 80-90 percent completed. Interestingly, the age of 20 is the point of dynamic balance: the same number of brain cells are born and die. Early childhood development helps develop the brain’s immense capacity, establish a multitude of associative connections involving more synapses, i.e., connections between its neural cells. This enhances data transfer, which increases the volume of what a person can memorize and his or her retention rate per unit of time.”

History knows of prodigies who did not study using special methods.

“How many people would have become geniuses if the early childhood development method had been applied to them? Or what new heights could all those geniuses have reached?”

What is Sofia’s grandparents’ attitude toward early childhood development?

“My mother has always opposed it. Every time we would visit her (she lives in another city), she would forbid me to conduct the early development classes. She may have had a point in something and I am grateful for this. When Sofia was 5 plus one month, she was enrolled in school. She was transferred to the second grade six months later. She needed those six months to adjust to the grade school routine. When Sofia was eight, she moved on to the fifth grade. At present, she is in the physics and mathematics class. She is not the best student in her class but is showing good academic performance.”

Has she had any problems communicating with her older classmates?

“None whatsoever. Sofia attended many hobby groups. Among other things, this added to her experience of communicating with older children. As a result, my daughter feels at home in her class. Of course, not all of the classmates are her friends, but this is only natural.”

What is the schoolteachers’ attitude toward your daughter?

“I believe that it was somewhat cautious at first; the teachers wanted to take a closer look at an eight-year-old pupil in grade 5. They wanted to know more about her, what she could do, but they have been treating her in the same way as the other students. They make no concessions.”

Could you list Sofia’s greatest achievements and failures in terms of early childhood development?

“I have already mentioned her achievements. Failures? I started teaching Sofia to write a bit too late (she was about three years old). Early childhood development theoreticians, among them Tiulenev, stress the importance of learning to write at an early age. Sofia’s writing proved inadequate in school and this slowed down her progress.

“I started teaching Sofia math too late, as I said. We didn’t obtain the results we had expected with foreign languages, but the reason was rather banal: a lack of money. I had to hire private tutors and this costs a pretty penny. Considering the standard recommendation that several foreign languages be studied simultaneously, you can understand that this is a heavy burden on the family budget.

“This made it possible to reduce the number of years she will spend at school. Twelve years studying at school is a waste of children’s time. Time is man’s most valuable resource. Apparently, those who have a talent for studies can master the curriculum in seven to ten years, while those who did early childhood development can do this much faster.”

COMMENTARY

Kateryna OVCHAREK, psychologist, Ukrainian Institute for Positive Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy and Management:

“Early childhood development methods make it possible to develop the child’s intellectual capacities, memory, and attention. However, every medal has two sides. I think that in the case of early childhood development the other side of the medal has several aspects.

“First, by encouraging our child to start studying [so early], we instill in him/her the habit of making achievements only when being pushed in this direction by someone. In other words, you won’t reach a cookie on the shelf without someone helping you. But the child can make his or her own effort by jumping and trying to get it. This sense of leaping may disappear when in the early childhood development program.

“Another aspect is that early childhood development allows such children to shorten the duration of studies and then rationally use the time thus saved to make a career. However, making a career is not the main thing in one’s life. This girl may find the sense of her life in having a family. I think that in the early years it is important to closely follow children and their spontaneous interests.

“Imposing things on your child is something different. On the one hand, this is a problem that has to do with the parents, with their dreams and ideas that have never come true. On the other hand, it has to do with daily life, when we have to do so much in such a short time. Wouldn’t it be better to relax, listening to one’s inner self?

“Man has two fundamental abilities: loving and studying. Love comes first because this ability will eventually lay the foundations of learning and help one accept oneself come what may. Besides, if a child is taught to do things only to produce [spectacular] results, this individual may face a crisis as an adult, in a situation where no such results can be produced. Therefore, I am for striking a happy medium between nature and nurture.”