Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies
Ann Hulbert’s in-depth exploration of the lives of sixteen extraordinary children over the course of the past century casts new light on America’s current obsession with early achievement. The figures she profiles include math genius Norbert Wiener, founder of cybernetics; two girls whose fiction and poetry stirred debate in the 1920s; the movie superstar Shirley Temple; the African-American pianist and composer Philippa Schuyler; the chess champion Bobby Fischer; computer pioneers and “prodigious savants” with autism; and musical prodigies, present and past. Hulbert probes the changing roles of parents and teachers as well as of psychologists and a curious press. Above all, she delves into the feelings of the prodigies themselves, whose stories so intriguingly raise hopes about untapped human potential and questions about how best to nurture it.
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Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies
Ann Hulbert’s in-depth exploration of the lives of sixteen extraordinary children over the course of the past century casts new light on America’s current obsession with early achievement. The figures she profiles include math genius Norbert Wiener, founder of cybernetics; two girls whose fiction and poetry stirred debate in the 1920s; the movie superstar Shirley Temple; the African-American pianist and composer Philippa Schuyler; the chess champion Bobby Fischer; computer pioneers and “prodigious savants” with autism; and musical prodigies, present and past. Hulbert probes the changing roles of parents and teachers as well as of psychologists and a curious press. Above all, she delves into the feelings of the prodigies themselves, whose stories so intriguingly raise hopes about untapped human potential and questions about how best to nurture it.
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Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies

Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies

by Ann Hulbert
Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies

Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies

by Ann Hulbert

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$16.95 
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Overview

Ann Hulbert’s in-depth exploration of the lives of sixteen extraordinary children over the course of the past century casts new light on America’s current obsession with early achievement. The figures she profiles include math genius Norbert Wiener, founder of cybernetics; two girls whose fiction and poetry stirred debate in the 1920s; the movie superstar Shirley Temple; the African-American pianist and composer Philippa Schuyler; the chess champion Bobby Fischer; computer pioneers and “prodigious savants” with autism; and musical prodigies, present and past. Hulbert probes the changing roles of parents and teachers as well as of psychologists and a curious press. Above all, she delves into the feelings of the prodigies themselves, whose stories so intriguingly raise hopes about untapped human potential and questions about how best to nurture it.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781101971321
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 01/22/2019
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

ANN HULBERT is the author of Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children and The Interior Castle: The Art and Life of Jean Stafford. Her articles and reviews have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, and The Atlantic, where she is the literary editor. She is a graduate of Harvard and spent a year at Cambridge University. She lives with her husband in Washington, D.C.

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CHAPTER 1
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "Off the Charts"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Ann Hulbert.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Part I Nature Vs. Nurture

Chapter 1 The Wonder Boys of Harvard 3

Chapter 2 "A Very Free Child" 38

Part II Daughters and Dreams

Chapter 3 "A Renaissance of Creative Genius in Girlhood" 69

Chapter 4 Performance Pressures 106

Part III Rebels With Causes

Chapter 5 Bobby Fischer's Battles 145

Chapter 6 The Programmers 177

Part IV Miracles and Strivers

Chapter 7 The Mystery of Savant Syndrome 215

Chapter 8 Tiger Parents, Super Children 251

Epilogue 281

Acknowledgments 293

Notes 297

Index 353

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