eBook Accidental Genius download

Imagine this. Doctors tell you your premature child may be burdened with slow mental development throughout their life. The child is fussy and can't sleep without some kind of mental stimulus- a quick fire candidate for ADD drugs. Rather than medicate you quickly find the best way to calm your child down is to interact with them and the child picks up things quickly. In fact, your child loves learning, retains most anything you present it and can recall the same information with voracity. You've hit the jackpot! Your kid should cruise through their classes and is likely to be the pride any school they attend. Colleges will be lined up around the block with scholarships and your baby's future is assured. Right? Not even close.

The Kearney's found themselves in just this situation and quickly discovered there is a vast difference between learning and the US education system- big emphasis on the word "system". The first thing they found is that our system prefers children to step through it at the it's pace- not the child's, regardless of how disinterested the child may be in the curriculum. The first assumption our education makes is disinterest represents laziness or reluctance to learn- even if the child has already learned the material, finds repetition dull or just needs a small break. Aside from trying to feed a bottomless mental appetite the Kearney's had to make a very difficult decision: Let the public education system take a bright child and knock that bright light down to a normal level and possibly create endless behavioral problems in the process, pay an expensive private school to do the same or home school their child and hope the state recognizes their efforts. They tried the first two but eventually accepted the last option and even then they were always plagued by double standards, dimwitted officials, inept professionals, and little to no outside help. In fact, it seems that rather than foster intelligent students the US education system is simply more interested in simply reporting that they have students. Why is this? Because our education system is a joke.

Think about how teachers are resented on all sides, ridiculously underpaid, under budgeted and checked by conflicting bureaucratic standards then think about how dumb someone must be to consider that as a career choice. There is humor or at least an illustration of a nation which pays education lip service but doesn't really take it seriously. Perhaps the thought of intelligent children eventually competing for our jobs is frightening. Perhaps the thought of not raising a generation of consumers who define themselves only by consumption is frightening to corporations. Perhaps the old guard (i.e. Ivy League alumni with vast contributions) are happy with things the way they are. Again, who is most precious to our future- another parent's prodigy or our own child? And does our education system really matter when two of "the best Ivy League" schools are churning out people like George W. Bush through? To quote him "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." This book highlights the problems with and conclusion any hopeful parent will discover about raising a gifted child in America: If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. It may bankrupt you, bring you under suspicious of child endangerment, create envy in pretty much every parent you know and wear you to a nub, but that's the gift of having a gifted child in our current system.

Should you be looking for "how to create a prodigy" advice, there really isn't much here. The parents don't outline lesson plans. In fact, they seemed to simply do what many parents should: encourage, support, provide positive reinforcement, take their child's education seriously and try to make learning as fun as possible for their child. In that respect I believe they deserve an A+. The rest (prodigality, genius) is really genetic.

I would give this book five stars but the editing is the worst I've ever seen in a published work. Numerous spelling errors and accidentally repeated passages litter the book. Even the title is odd considering the authors state repeatedly and clearly that they don't consider their children geniuses, but prodigies. I had to wonder if anyone actually bothered to edit the manuscript at all or how drunk they were when they did. I can forgive the shoddy jacket artwork but I really feel the publisher did a half-hearted job on this one, which is unfortunate for such an interesting book and wake up call for our national education system.

Great story about a genius child who was in college by the age of 5. Hmmm, I wonder where he is now??

I recently read "Accidental Genius", and it was a fascinating read.

I was,however, a bit perplexed by some of the things Kevin and Cassidy Kearney wrote. For example, on page 202 the following is found: "All children are natural geniuses. It is the nurturing that allows the natural genius to expand and take hold." To me, this seems a bit absurd. Are even children with subnormal intellects natural geniuses?

Why do they make such statements as those, and then turn around and refer to their son Michael as "severely gifted"? Are all children "severely gifted"? If so, they're all about the same intellectually, and they're all normal -- basically the same -- with none who are severely gifted.

This sort of incoherence -- or what seems to me to be incoherence -- is a bit perplexing. After all, the authors are themselves greatly gifted.

It seems obvious to me -- and it would seem to be obvious to any really thoughtful person -- that intelligence has an awesomely vital genetic component, but that the genetic component cannot be actualized without sufficient opportunity, encouragement, and prompting. Thus, it makes little sense to refer to all children as "natural geniuses". Now, admittedly, it could be the case that nearly any normally intelligent child could be so intellectually stimulated and encouraged as to way out-perform the average person. Yet, the "severely gifted" will still make circles around the average child's accomplishments with equal opportunities and encouragement.

I somewhat take issue with the authors' harsh evaluation of the school systems. After all, it needs to be understood that the schools must be prepared to educate the numerous average children, the few seriously deficient learners, and even the few prodigiously gifted. It is a great burden to seek to effectively provide adequate educational opportunities for ALL children over the entire greatly varying spectrum of ability and talent. The schools cannot be well prepared to handle the prodigiously gifted with the very special needs they have. After all, they must simultaneously be prepared to encourage and educate the gravely slow learners. How to accomplish such a feat is something that even the prodigiously gifted cannot truly resolve -- the obstacles are too numerous and too great.

Having made some criticisms of this book, I feel privileged to have access to such a book, since reading about the "severely gifted" can be highly inspirational, and the authors have done a fine job of revealing much vital information about the struggles and hardships of child rearing -- especially with rearing the profoundly gifted. Thus, I give the book a 5-star rating.

Yes, that's right... this was a fascinating story. And it was easy to read almost non-stop until I had heard it told. However, the book really does have many shortcomings. Perhaps just because the story is so fascinating that it raises all sorts of questions that are not addressed here. Most notably missing is Michael's own view on his childhood. How could the parents not think of including him in his own story? His own analysis would be at least as insightful as that of his parents. Especially since some of the speculation engaged in by the parents is of limited cogency. Particularly unsettling, in the midst of an already loose and casual narrative style, is the large number of spelling errors or similar proofreading errors that are in the book. Apparently this small press charges more money but offers less quality in its product. The story is fascinating and merits a 4 out of 5 rating for its interest alone. But the parental interpretation could have greatly benefited from editing, proofreading, and supplemental material provided by a third author - either a subject area expert or their "whiz kid" himself. Strangely, they refer to Michael's autobiography as if it is a published book somewhere, but web searches have turned up no sign of it. Nor is it included in the reference section at the back of this book. This book is fascinating, just as if one could meet directly with the parents and talk with them all day long. However, it really feels like a draft manuscript, rather than a polished and completed work. I am grateful it's available, but the story and subject deserved more thorough treatment.