<p>The first point made in the you tube interview (Dallas area station) is that Magnus’ speech was delayed. I imagine this was devastating to the parents. Then, they did research and found that in PG kids, speech can be delayed (again, from the interview). Imagine how relieved they were to discover that their child was not developmentally delayed, but instead possibly PG.</p>
<p><em>IF</em> they have since discovered that their child is on the autism spectrum, they are focusing on his strengths now. They are protecting him from what is difficult for him and allowing him to excel in a way in which he is capable of excelling. Certainly, he would experience difficulties in many areas, such as making friends. If his parents were socially awkward, they probably remember unpleasant experiences in jr. high and high school. They wouldn’t want their son to have the same experiences. </p>
<p>Maybe the parents are getting therapy for Magnus now. Or maybe they’ll get it later. It could be that realizing success now is good for Magnus and will help him deal with any Asperger’s issues later on. It’s very hard to know what is right in this situation. And we only know a tiny bit of what is going on in Magnus’ life. </p>
<p>I do think that Magnus’ parents have brought on all of this speculation by the manner in which they have thrust their son into the spotlight. If their son does have a disability, it could be that instead of accepting it and dealing with it, they are compensating for it by publicizing their son’s gifts. I think if there is a disability and they don’t accept it, that could be harmful to their son.</p>
<p>Ahem- Let me suggest something appropriate that will probably do the trick. It’s all in how he presents it. I’ve studied the videos and have tried to get to know the kid as best I can from studying his mannerisms and speech patterns. I have come up with an idea. I’m seeing …hmmmm…suburban Dallas white-rapper with not-quite-there white urban-speak. </p>
<p>Based upon my careful review it would go something like this : “Yo,yo,yo dawg. Dis is yo white boy 32MAGnus. Wassup wid all dat $%^& I’m getting on CC and $%^&? Yo, dawg. Put down that blunt, turn down that Ziggy Marley . Has mom got her head in that bag again? Don’t try telling me y’all ain’t doing no ^%^& ‘cuz that website is seriously %^&$#$ up. Not cool at all. You messin’ with my piano cred old man. Know what I’m saying, dawg? Take that $%#% down or somebody may take you out. Just sayin’, dawg.”</p>
<p>marite if you can’t manage quirky people you shouldn’t be in upper management of high tech firms.</p>
<p>Since the bear is junior in college I have raised a child very talented in math. Not much extra enrichment I encouraged her cello, premier soccer and friends so she could have a life. I was always available to answer questions and encouraged her to help others. Virtually nobody knew of her talent and I wanted it that way.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, did you know that our son came up with a rap number to describe his doctoral research and has been doing it from time to time on request when people ask? I was <em>shocked</em> the first time I heard it, but he explained it was to make more entertaining a topic that might otherwise seem not so exciting to the lay public. So you never know how rap might indeed be used by this child someday! :O</p>
<p>Some people wanted to put his rap number on YouTube. Given how harshly that might be treated by people who view it and don’t know him personally, I am glad he has so far told people not to do it. Though I didn’t see much harm in it when people were making that request, I am now thinking the guy was again right to “Just say no.”</p>
<p>For each and every laudable amazing and unbelievable cases that lazy posts, there are many many more that don’t succeed, and while its great that these do, it shouldn’t be assumed if you are gifted, you will go the same path.</p>
<p>iI think the unabomber was probably gifted as well.</p>
<p>Lazy, it is just wonderful you have been this is academic bubble and denigrate us average types so.</p>
<p>Its amazing that even though my funny charming contractor husband wasn’t gifted cause obviously we have beaten all those odds the endanger the likes of us. </p>
<p>Too bad the average joe’s pick up your garbage, fix you car, give your kids their shots, arrest the bad guys, and such and all manage to do it while staying married and not getting addicted to drugs or thrown in jail, cause some weren’t in the honors classes and maybe went to CC.</p>
<p>Must be a very scary world for some when its inhabited but the weak, ungifted masses.</p>
<p>With all the different ways that children in the world are truly mis-treated, I guess I am having trouble getting worked up about this boy-- is he sad, miserable, lonely, unloved, neglected, abused…? </p>
<p>His parents have a ‘hot housing’ approach. They have recognized his gifts and are nurturing them. If they had decided instead that he should have a ‘well rounded’ life experience ((as conventionally envisioned)) they would likely not be doing justice to the uniqueness of his mind.</p>
<p>I think the parents have clearly gone a lot overboard on the promotional side, but I guess I would rather see this kid being advertized than many of the media-created role models for kids.</p>
<p>thank you LazyBum for excellent examples. “My point is your path is far from the only one to happiness and that you see other paths as having what I feel to be a distorted end of the road (or even middle of the road). In other words, you see far more doom that really exists.”
I totally agree.
Often highly gifted students need to be accelerated or homeschooled in order to be happy [which often means not bored to tears in a normal school surrounded by students and teachers who don’t understand the gifted or worse feel threatened by them] and to find their true mental “peers”. Truly gifted people think differently, learn differently and these differences need to be recognized and accepted, not looked upon as problematic. I can’t overempasize this enough.</p>
<p>parentof2bear:
I agree that management requires skills that usually quirky people do not have. and the quirky ones are not in management, but some of them founded companies that made use of their discoveries. I’ve met quite a few people in high tech as my H works in that field. The managers have great people skills. </p>
<p>I hate it when people say someone does not have a life. What does it mean exactly? Does it mean having to play a sport even if you don’t like sports, play music even if you don’t care for music? Why is reading or doing math/science as long as one likes not “having a life?” My S has had a different life from your D. But let me assure you he has a life. It’s his and no one else’s.</p>
<p>“Tell Dad to go back to work and get a life. He may want to word that last piece of advice more delicately.”</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the big deal is about dad not working / homeschooling. It’s interesting that a dad deciding to SAH and / or homeschool is always viewed with much more suspicion than a mom deciding to do the same. </p>
<p>Would you feel differently if, of the two PhD parents, mom was the one who SAH and homeschooled this young boy? You might equally tell her to get a life, but there wouldn’t be the same assumption that she needs to go get a job.</p>
<p>menloparkmom … absolutely … “Truly gifted people think differently, learn differently and these differences need to be recognized and accepted, not looked upon as problematic.”</p>
<p>It can be problematic for us parents…lol … but for good reasons.</p>
<p>Re; post 292: YUP. Lots of high-powered women lawyers quit their jobs in order to be SAHM. No one seems to have suggested they ought to “go back to work and get a life.” And they’re not homeschooling their kids.</p>
<p>I’ve learned something from this thread, as well. That presentation really does matter and that we all have different tolerance levels. I do find the website unseemly, but it’s fine if others don’t. There is also a poster on this thread who is polite and clearly well-intentioned but whose style so rubs me the wrong way that I need to filter. Which is my problem not his/hers. I guess my point is that if you put yourself out there on a message board or a website, some people just won’t care for what you do and that’s quite ok on both sides. But it is important to exercise certain conventions of civility.</p>
<p>'Lots of high-powered women lawyers quit their jobs in order to be SAHM. No one seems to have suggested they ought to “go back to work and get a life.” And they’re not homeschooling their kids."</p>
<p>You might want to double-check your facts on that one, Marite. We are homeschooling our kids.</p>
<p>I thought Marite was making a general statement about lots of high-powered women lawyers becoming SAHM’s (which is, of course, true), not singling out any one particular poster. Nonetheless, the point remains that whatever one’s “issues” with this website are, the fact that dad is the homeschooling parent without the job shouldn’t be any more or less noteworthy than if it were the mom. It’s no more indicative of pushy-parent-tude that it happens to be the father.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I agree with you that in this situation it is irrelevant that it is the dad instead of the mom taking the son to tv stations for interviews, etc. I’d still think it was over the top if his mom had been the one to seek out the publicity. </p>
<p>I didn’t think Marite was singling me out, I just wanted to correct the assumption that he made that women lawyers aren’t homeschooling their kids.</p>
<p>My comment about Dad getting a life was really directed at the website and the promotional work seemingly taking the place of a job - not the homeschooling. I wasn’t focused at all on the homeschooling and certainly never meant to suggest that it mattered whether it was the mom or the dad. He quit his job when his son was 3 and uses words like “groom.” I do not have an academically gifted child so maybe making them your full time job at 3 is appropriate, but the comment wasn’t directed at homeschooling. BTW - check out the website now - we’ve been acknowledged in a way that will make son proud.</p>
<p>cpq: First I’m a she. I phrased my comment badly. Lots of women lawyers who have decided to become SAHM aren’t homeschooling their kids. Okay with you now?</p>
<p>cartera:
I really don’t care how others choose to lead their lives. There’s no such thing as "a life that fits everyone, whether it’s adults or children.</p>
I was <em>shocked</em> the first time I heard it, but he explained it was to make more entertaining a topic that might otherwise seem not so exciting to the lay public. So you never know how rap might indeed be used by this child someday! :O</p>