The Genius in Your Sandbox

sum, consecutive, algorithm

The Genius in Your Sandbox



There is a well-known story about Carl Gauss, the mathematician who pioneered in planetary orbits and Kirchhof’s Laws.  As a preschool child, young Carl not only corrected  his father’s accounts but also intuitively devised a formula to sum consecutive numbers without addition.  While Gauss’ gifts for mathematical analysis were easily recognized and appreciated early in his career, imagine the following scenario.



Your five-year-old is at the table with your dinner guests when one of the guests mentions that his birthday is the following Thursday and he is dreading turning forty (or fifty or thirty).  You child quietly announces that your superannuated guest was born on a Sunday and - since that is a lucky day - he will have a good birthday this year.  You look at your offspring and tell him he can’t possibly know anything about this and you encourage him to participate in the dinner conversation in a more appropriate manner.  “No,” your child insists, “I know what I’m talking about.”  Not wanting to disrupt the table any more, you ask your child wonder to take a time out and consider his options.



Your guest, who confirms your young one’s statement, just happens to be a teacher of gifted children.  He explains to you that there are children who have the ability to use an internally developed algorithm to act as perpetual calendars.  Your child is suddenly gifted and not at all a behavioral problem! You call him back to the table and wonder what other stores of wisdom there are in this, your precious offspring.



It is up to us to recognize in ourselves and in our families those special gifts which make us able to contribute to each other’s enjoyment of life by those gifts.  If Carl Gauss’ father had shut the preschooler in his room for impertinence, Carl might have put his efforts into stamp collecting and the world might not have had the benefit of this brilliant mind.



Even if your sandbox wonder is wrong as s/he wonders about the patterns of the world around him/her, encouraging analytic and critical thought is one of the least costly and most profitable activities in which a parent may indulge.  Even if they are objectively wrong, our children’s observations are their contributions to the world and it is simple to listen, discuss and verify with your child.  If Mr. and Mrs. Gauss could have a Carl, the chances are that any one of us could as well nurture another great mind.

sum, consecutive, algorithm