Is being a child genius a curse or a blessing? Is it fair to push a child to be intelligently superior to other children at a young age?

An article in last weeks Economist raised the question of whether child prodigies are born or made.

What was not discussed in any depth was the impact such intelligence has upon a young child. Ploughing through novels while still in nappies, when other children are engrossed with their new action man can soon cause social problems. These gifted kids may become isolated from others their age as they are not motivated by the same things in life. This makes me wonder; does high intellect come at the price of losing aspects of your childhood? Supposedly, these are the best years of our lives, and we won’t be getting them back.

As these child geniuses grow, they will be outdoing their classmates, and as is often seen they can be moved ahead a year or two in school. This is bound to have a social effect as they will be leaving friends behind and being required to interact with elders.

The exceptionally talented may find themselves in university at an extremely young age. Children as young as twelve have been known to be heading into the university life, as was the case with Oxford graduate, Ruth Lawrence who then graduated at just fifteen.[1] But would Ruth have been able to get the most out of university? These years are supposed to be full of meeting new people, having fun and enjoying yourself.

Child geniuses carry a hefty burden, where it seems intelligence comes at a social cost.