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Canadian teen chess player Pascal Charbonneau has all the qualities of a child prodigy. He is smart, knows a lot about a variety of subjects, has achieved a lot at a young age, and is confident in his abilities. But Charbonneau does not like to be called a prodigy. “Winning a championship at this age is considered special, but I don’t like thinking of myself as someone who is very different from other people,” he said. Like many 18-year-olds, Charbonneau is trying to decide where to go to college. School has always been easy for him, as it is for most gifted students. Many gifted students choose to finish school early to avoid getting bored, but Charbonneau decided to cruise through his classes so he could concentrate on chess and some of his other interests, such as sports and French literature. In general, gifted students tend to have an insatiable appetite for information. They are also perfectionists. In addition, most are independent and sensitive to injustice. Other characteristics include specific ability in one area along with the ability to concentrate on it for a long time, excellent reading ability, a large vocabulary, originality, rapid mastery of new skills, and an ability to see connections between ideas. Having these characteristics can be challenging, even depressing, said Charbonneau. He is critical of even his best performances. “I’m rarely ever happy with what I do.” Charbonneau knows that the pressure on him will soon begin to grow, as every young chess player tries to become the next champion. That pressure has destroyed a lot of talented young people. For example, many young musical prodigies have walked away from their careers after discovering they will not become the star of their dreams, says Francoys Gagné, an expert on gifted children at the University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada. “When you are a prodigy, your goal is to become an international master musician,” he said. “If you cannot become someone at the very top, you are not interested in becoming a musician in an orchestra.”
World-famous violinist Itzhak Perlman has seen many talented young musicians simply burn out. “Rarely do you see people survive, and that’s the goal, to survive your gift,” he once told the New York Times. Between 2 and 5 percent of young people are gifted, two to three years beyond their peers. But extremely gifted prodigies — the Beethovens and Mozarts — are much less common, perhaps one in a million, said Gagné. Here are some facts about several well-known child prodigies: Probably the most famous child prodigy of all, Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791) began writing music before he was five. By the age of six, he had written a remarkable amount of music and performed throughout Europe. Some of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) music was published when he was only twelve. Despite losing his hearing as an adult, he continued to write music until his deaf. It is often said that the great scientist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) failed at school. In fact, he did well and could be described as a prodigy. Einstein was always a high achiever, although his best work was done when he was in his twenties.
