The Children Who Know Too Much

Could young prodigies embody a hidden hope for our untapped human potential?

- Josh Sims

When, in October, Alma Deutscher took to the stage at Beijing’s Poly Theatre, the audience might well have let loose a collective gasp. This would not have been caused by the music, though the recital did include a number of Deutscher’s compositions. Rather it would have been by this elfin performer’s youth—Deutscher is only 14. She composed her first sonata at age six and her first full-length opera at 10. She plays piano as well as she plays violin, which is to say, very well indeed.

In some cultures, such a premium is placed on educational attainment that the number of children estimated to be receiving private tutoring has increased by a third over the last decade, according to UK-based education charity The Sutton Trust. Notions of ‘hot-housing’ children and ‘tiger’ parents have entered the common discourse as though pushing children to know more and to do more—and do it all more than competently—is an entirely natural thing. And, of course, more so in these super-competitive times, every parent thinks their kid is a genius.

But Deutscher is a veritable child prodigy, “a force of nature”, as the esteemed conductor Sir Simon Rattle has called her. “[She has] a sense of phrasing which many people two or three or four times her age would be lucky to have. This is not something you can teach. I haven’t really seen anything like it.”

Indeed, the fascination we have with child prodigies stems, ultimately, from their freakishness: their bucking of the norms that see these gifted kids attain a superlative skill that’s usually attained much later on in life and after having put in many years of consistent effort. If wisdom comes with age, a child who is able to write a concerto, become a chess grandmaster or tackle advanced calculus seems to be an almost supernatural phenomenon.