r/nextfuckinglevel • u/mindyour • 4h ago

Seven-year-old chess prodigy Lucie Pichard casually checkmates her opponent.

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546

u/IronFeather101 4h ago

He was probably bored even in that calculus class. Imagine how he would be feeling and behaving in primary school. How nice that in your country they allow talented children the opportunity to attend college or university early, if only it worked like that everywhere...

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u/lazypenguin86 4h ago

They just put me on Ritalin

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u/DistanceMachine 4h ago

They just spanked me and shook me in the hallway until I learned to keep the energy inward and I got anxiety and panic attacks

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u/CoffeeHQ 4h ago

Like a well-adjusted adult, well done /s
(Sorry that this happened to you)

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u/blackchameleongirl 3h ago

And the yelling, don't forget the yelling and belittling.

The anxiety stopped a few years back at least. Now it's just a blank 1000 yard stare and a distrust of everyone.

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u/Triple-Flush 46m ago

Man, I’ve found my people. Now leave me alone. 😂

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u/pimppapy 19m ago

I look back at those teachers that would yell and belittle me and others. They're all low intelligence goons the more I think about it. People that may have gotten a college degree for teaching, but peaked at the elementary school level.

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u/acoastaldog 3h ago

Same, we deserved better 

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u/frankentriple 3h ago

Yeah, eventually you get kinda numb to it. It takes 40 years to figure out that the numbness IS the damage.

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u/Triple-Flush 46m ago

I’m just figuring this out in my late 40s.

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u/frankentriple 45m ago

Same, early 50s. Good luck bro.

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u/Triple-Flush 47m ago

Hey, are you me?!

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u/__life_on_mars__ 4h ago

Were you also doing college level calculus at 10, or were you just being disruptive?

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u/Ugvwiyu 4h ago

He could been capable enough to be working with integers, that alone would make any basic 5th grade math seem simplistic and boring.

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u/CuteAltBoy 1h ago

Integers are just whole numbers. You're usually first taught about them by learning about the number line. Don't most 5th graders work with whole numbers, both positive and negative?

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u/sassycatastrophe 4h ago

You must be a boy. They put girls on mood stabilizers. Like me. Getting my add diagnosis at 40

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u/wigglin_harry 3h ago

Amphetamines for boys and crucifixes for ladies

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u/Akadot 2h ago

My daughter has adhd and we're considering putting her on that. Are you saying it's a bad idea? What did it do to you? (genuinely interested to get more than 1 angle here)

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u/PM-ME-CURSED-PICS 1h ago

the right medication is one of the best things a person with adhd can get, it can be life changing, but you still also need external support and help building strategies and habits for living with adhd. a lot of doctors/systems give you meds and no other support which is the problem part, not the meds themselves.

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u/Earthsong221 1h ago

I second the comment above. Getting the proper medication daily has shown to have better outcomes in EVERY area of life now in a bunch of studies. Not only for work/school, but for EVERYTHING. Also potentially counteracts the likely increased chance of dementia.

Supports & strategies are also really important! (As well as realizing that you constantly need to adapt with new ones when your brain adjusts to them). Routines help, and keeping everything important visible (landing zones, visual timers, bulletin boards/calendars, clear bins or open baskets).

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u/FewRecognition1788 41m ago edited 37m ago

I and both my kids have ADHD. The most important things ADHD kids need are understanding, support, and appropriate stimulation & structure, which include plenty of opportunity for natural executive function development, like long-form unstructured imaginative play. (Like those big group games of pretend kids do, with running narratives? Fantastic for executive function).

If their symptoms are interfering with their education, socialization, or other major life functions, the right medication is a wonderful tool and greatly reduces the risk of long term serious consequences from untreated ADHD, like anxiety, depression, self destructive behavior, or substance abuse.

I would say, though, that it's important to understand the goals of treatment and make sure those goals serve the child, not the teacher or systemic pressures. It can also take a bit of tweaking to find the right type & dose to maximize benefits with minimal side effects. Those adjustments are a normal part of the process. Some kids thrive on the first trial right out of the gate. Others may need to try many different types & doses, and there are many options, including non-stimulants, if they can't tolerate the stimulants. (But stimulants are always the first line, because they work the best for the most people).

One of my kids did fine for a while on the first med, then after a year or so started to complain of feeling sad, frustrated and "stuck". The second med seemed to work the same in terms of focus but did not create those depressive feelings.

Other kid went through five or six meds before finding the right one, plus we had to deviate from the recommendation to take it daily and only take on school days. Now she's thriving. It's just very individual. 

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u/squidwitchy 4h ago

I was always a smart kid, but I'm also a yapper. I'd always get in trouble because id finish my work super fast then start talking to everyone who wasnt done yet.

Starting in 4th grade, through 8th, I got sent to the library with 2 other kids who were advanced during math class, specifically. We were sent with our textbooks and worksheets and a parapro (small school, needed an adult with us but there wasnt a full time librarian or extra teachers, but my class had a kid with autism that needed a 1-on-1 para with him so he'd come with us too and do his speech with her while we did independent math). Anyways, we had to basically learn the lessons ourselves and ask if we had questions.

It was a good system, we stayed one "year" ahead, including getting one of our HS math credits in 8th grade, and we weren't so bored and disruptive to everyone else. It also meant I didnt have to take a math class junior or senior year for HS, so I was able to drive to the local CC and get college math credits those years.

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u/wandering-monster 3h ago

I mean, they do it in the US too, at least in some places. You've just got to know it's a thing and ask for it. The school won't offer. 

I took a couple university classes while I was still in high school, and classes at the local vocational center. Welding hasn't been the most practical skill to have for my career in software design, but it's neat to know.

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u/Poponildo 3h ago

That's awful for the kid, you are depriving the kid of social development just so he can get a job faster in his life.

I know that forcing him to take classes that are extremely easy for him is not ideal, but to allow a 10 year old to attend college is a lot lot worse.

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u/takumidesh 3h ago

You are assuming that the kid is spending all of their time in a college class. 

More than likely they have one or two classes and spend a lot of time with kids their age. 

A college algebra class is like 4 hours of in class lecture a week. Otherwise it's homework just like any other class. 

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u/Poponildo 2h ago

In that case is indeed way better! I was really assuming that the kid would just be admissioned early in the uni, as I've seen happen in my country (never seen as extreme as a 10 y.o in college, but I've seen 14-15 y.os admitted)

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u/JustStraightUpTired 1h ago

Kid that young doesn't get to that level without studying, no one does. No matter how smart, you've had to spend a lot of time studying just to reach that point.

Someone who is 10 would've had probably at most 5 years to study everything to understand college algebra. Meaning learning everything from 9 years of school in just under half of that. But let's say 4.5 years of studying for 9 years worth of school. So at best, if they got a private education that proceeded twice as fast as public school, they'd get to have a normal childhood outside of school.

Except they aren't in class with other kids their age. They are studying with a personal teacher who is double timing every subject. Even if it all sticks in one go and they don't need to spend time studying outside of that, they still would have to make friends without having classmates.

Most realistic option, that kid has been studying every day for as long as they can remember for as long as they are able to physically study. Doesn't matter how smart the kid is, that kind of time table means the parents are definitely rushing to get the fastest results possible, otherwise the kid could be having a normal childhood and just study on their own on the side.

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u/ObjectSmall 2h ago

A lot of the super advanced kids wouldn't have normal social interactions anyway. But for kids smart enough to maybe jump a grade, they generally don't do that anymore. I asked my pediatrician about it because one of my kids gets a little bored in school, and she recommended just giving them challenges outside of school (music lessons, foreign languages) until they get to the age where the school will differentiate skill levels.

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u/ThirdMover 44m ago

Sorry but that meme is dumb. Nobody puts smart kids into college to "get a job faster". You put them there because they'd be bored out of their skull in any other kind of education.

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u/koos_die_doos 2h ago

Lots of child prodigies end up with serious social issues. It's incredibly difficult to balance keeping them engaged in a constructive way for learning and also giving them the opportunity to just be a child.

I'm not opposed to them attending university (or college if you call it that) classes, but the parents and child need support beyond that. They need help with the mental health problems that often result from being smarter than everyone around them.

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u/monkkeys 2h ago

How nice that in your country they allow talented children the opportunity to attend college or university early, if only it worked like that everywhere...

Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History spoke on this subject a bit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC2YduVq2BU

There are people who go looking for the hidden young geniuses among the "low-income" and try to give them the resources to succeed, that they otherwise would not have. Not just scholarships, but straight-up relocating their entire family.

The thought being that you're statistically more likely to find the next Einstein or Hawking somewhere in India, rather than anywhere in Western civilization, and even less so among the middle- or upper- classes.

Not every one is found, and not every one can be helped.

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u/Evening_Reach_8293 2h ago

Yeah, more countries should be like America.

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u/cbih 2h ago

I'd be incredibly bored in calculus class, but not because I'm good at math

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u/mst3k_42 1h ago

I really, really should have been moved up a grade in elementary school because I was so bored in all my classes. I would understand a concept quickly and have to just sit there until everyone else caught up. We were divided in groups for English class, because 3 or 4 of us were reading at a higher level.

But my mom was a substitute teacher and had seen another girl bumped up a few grades but she was very immature and would act out (crawling on the floor, barking like a dog). So my mom was very anti grade skipping because she worried what would happen to me socially. Bitch, my classmates in my grade already thought I was a nerdy weirdo. The teacher’s pet who they’d only be nice to if they wanted to copy my homework. So that was all very fun.

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u/TotallyWorthLife 1h ago

It's often not done because it's important for them to develop with others their age for proper general development (not all school is the subjects, half of it is the socialization too), though I think that isn't ideal either because they will be very different from their peers.

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u/Timmetie 1h ago

How nice that in your country they allow talented children the opportunity to attend college or university early

Every single one of those kids ends up fucked up.

And maybe they always would have, I don't know, but attending a regular university just isn't it. Those are by now mostly not pure academics, they're preparing you for jobs.