Anne Johnson responding to Thomas Suarez - 12 year old Apple Developer

Thomas Suarez is a delightful young man and a great example of talent development at early ages.  One of my epiphany's in education has been the fact that there are children who find their passion and interests relatively early in life - and they need the opportunity to explore them.   We have had conversations about this in our administrative meetings and how one accommodates these children and their unique pathway to advancing these gifts - and I think a fair amount of disagreement as well.

I find the conversations fascinating . . . . some have centered around "well roundedness" and the importance of all children having a variety of experiences so that they can ultimately arrive at their career or life long avocation.  There is concern that in choosing a path so early, these children will regret that they didn't have other experiences or that somehow they will have been shortchanged by not having other experiences and/or devoting time to their passion area that could be given other endeavors.  There is also the school of thought that they will be socially or emotionally damaged by not having shared experiences with those their same age.

I think Thomas Suarez and other children like him would disagree.  They are not "unrounded" or damaged by pursuing an area of interest with intensity, or by spending time with adults and/or older peers.  It is to the teacher and school's credit that they honored Thomas and worked with him.  And it is to Thomas's credit that he has put his talent to good use to benefit others.

As an educator, I would like to honor both groups of children - those who need lots of experiences and take longer to find their "fit" as well as those who identify an interest/talent early and seek to develop it at an earlier stage of life.  The SMPY, Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth presented its most recent findings recently.  The emphasized the impact of experiences in development of math talent and how those experiences allowed individuals to attain higher levels of accomplishment within their fields and research.  Experiences most definitely matter - the quality, the availability, and the match to the individual's ability/talent level.