Everyone wants their kids to be genius. Okay, maybe not everyone. But many parents try their best in trying to nurture their childrens' intellects from the cradle. It’s no longer enough to send them to a good high school, a good middle school, or the best early education program. No. Now it’s all about teaching them from birth.

That’s great. Some children learn to read at the age they learn to walk. As toddlers, they learn to play the violin, know thousands of facts about historical figures, swim, and even perform mental addition and subtraction better than many kindergarteners. This kind of early enrichment contributes to the development of cognitive skills far beyond a child’s usual developmental level. These children are happy, balanced, well-behaved, and have far more interesting conversational skills than many adults.

The Main Roadblock in Rapid Intellectual Growth

The problem in intellectual enrichment lies in the tendency to provide intellectual stimuli to a child, rather than allowing the child to decide for themselves. As babies, it’s necessary to provide intellectual activities to the child, to offer them a world of possibilities. It is natural to feed them, to ensure that they get proper sleep. But as a child grows and becomes more independent, a parent must also learn to nurture and trust the child’s common sense and its ability to decide for itself, and to guide the child based on reason, rather than to enforce rules based on the parent’s preference.

And now I hear your fear, parents. I hear your complaints. But children don’t know any better! They can’t be allowed to decide their sleep time for themselves! They can’t be allowed to play videogames for as long as they like! That is a reasonable fear, and a sound one, if a child has never been granted the freedoms that an adult would otherwise have. But of course, if a child’s intellect has been stimulated, if a child’s brain has grown at a speed faster than its age, is it not logical to allow such children to learn to decide for themselves, to have a say in some of the routines, responsibilities, and duties they should have in life?

Don’t take me wrong; everyone must learn to endure some unpleasantness in life. But life’s full of opportunities that will allow this. Far more opportunities than are necessary, in my opinion. School will be restrictive enough; school will be coercive enough. School will be illogical enough to frustrate any intelligent child about the ridiculousness and arbitrary nature of some rules, about the inconsistent behavior of some teachers, about the unfairness of grades and homework. But a high-functioning human being requires some degree of self-direction in order to express its highest intellectual and creative capabilities, because that’s when the exceptional mind can truly shine. Anything else will only be flashes and glimpses at its potential, but no more than that.

The Hidden Mistakes in Intellectual Development Programs

This lack of self-directed learning and living is not always evident, especially to parents who may be closely watching over their kids. An intelligent child is more aware of everything that’s wrong in the world, is usually more generous and less cautious in his or her interactions with others. This can lead to disappointment in the child, to the point where hope in the world may be lost every now and then. And it’s natural for parents to worry about that, too, and to try to protect their children from such situations, to try to guide them into more pleasant contexts. They sometimes decide that their child should not be exposed to more than a few hours of television or to more than an hour of videogames a week. They determine that their child should enrich their schoolwork with other intellectually stimulating activities which may not exactly fit the child’s personality or learning style.

And all the above attitudes can be nefarious in the development of a sound intellectual capacity. In limiting the executive functions of the brain –that is, the self-direction and the freedom to face the responsibility of one’s actions–, they are also limiting their child’s natural intelligence. But don’t take me wrong; these parents' intentions, though short-sighted, are well-meaning. They are trying to protect their child. However, the human brain requires both high cognition and high self-direction. Otherwise, they are only raising a model employee, rather than a genius.

Where’s the Limit?

While I see my friends' intellectually stimulated yet micro-managed children grow into intelligent as responsible adults, I wonder if this micro-management robbed the world of the next Leonardo da Vinci, of someone who would be able to see beyond the standards of knowledge and question them, because that is what the human mind is best at in its truest nature. Rather than accepting dogma of any kind, it is designed to analyze, to question, to expand, to build upon the work of others. And in so doing, it can push the limits of what it means to be human. That, in turn, simplifies the work of the next generation.

But of course, the life of a genius is rarely easy, and in limiting their child’s maximum intelligence, these parents may be opting for the responsible path. It may be wiser to limit a child’s self-direction, in a way, because a model employee will always fit into society, whereas a genius will usually need to go through a great deal more to elbow him- or herself into it.