Dear Parents of Math Geniuses
I often receive letters from parents of math geniuses — “My twelve-year-old is reading an algebraic geometry book: accept him to PRIMES,” or “My ten-year-old finished her calculus course: here is her picture to post on your blog,” or “My two-year-old knows the multiplication table, can you write a research paper with him?” The last letter was a sarcastic extrapolation.
I am happy to hear that there are a lot of math geniuses out there. They are potentially our future PRIMES and PRIMES STEP students. But, it is difficult to impress me. The fact that children know things early doesn’t tell me much. I’ve seen a student who didn’t know arithmetic and managed to pass calculus. I’ve also met a student claiming the full knowledge of fusion categories, which later appeared to be from half-watching a five-minute YouTube video.
There are a lot of products catering to parents who want to bring up geniuses. My grandson received a calculus book for his first birthday: Introductory Calculus For Infants. Ten years later, he still is not ready for calculus.
Back to gifted children. Once a mom brought us her kid, who I can’t forget. The child bragged that he solved 30 thousand math problems. What do you think my first thought was? Actually, I had two first thoughts: 1) Why on Earth would anyone count all the problems they solved? 2) And, what is the difficulty of the problems he solved 30 thousand of?
From time to time, I receive an email from a parent whose child is a true math genius. My answer to this parent is the same as to any other parent: “Let your child apply to our programs. We do a great job at working with math geniuses.”
Our programs’ admissions are done by entrance tests. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, the heavily advertised kids often do poorly on these tests. It could be that the parents overestimate their children’s abilities. But sometimes, the situation is more interesting and sad: I have seen children who sabotage the entrance tests so as not to be accepted into our programs. We also had students give us hints on their application forms that they were forced to apply.
In the first version of this essay, I wrote funny stories of what these students did. Then, I erased the stories. I do not want the parents to know how their children are trying to free themselves.
Dear parents, do not push your children into our programs. If they do not want to be mathematicians, you are decreasing their chances of getting into a good college. Imagine an admission officer who reads an essay from a student who wants to be a doctor but wastes ten hours a week on a prestigious math research program. Such a student doesn’t qualify as a potential math genius, as their passion lies elsewhere. Nor does this student qualify as a future doctor, as they didn’t do anything to pursue their claimed passion. In the end, the student is written off as a person with weak character.
On the other hand, the students who do want to be in our programs, thrive. They often start breathing mathematics and are extremely successful. Encourage your children to apply to our programs if they have BOTH: the gift for mathematics and the heart for it.
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