I feel really sorry for the children on Child Genius

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Is anybody watching this on channel 4?

None of the children seem to be enjoying themselves,it's all about them achieving for their parents. These parents don't seem to be any better than those who make their children participate in beauty pageants.

It's great to encourage learning,but this? All that pressure at such a young age and for what?

I just don't see the benefit in it. Half of these children don't seem to be anywhere near enjoying themselves.

I also feel sorry for the siblings of said child genius!

I'd have to say most of what they were doing in the tests are learned skills. I remember watching a programme about Chinese children who are taught to do massive sums with an abacus and as they get more proficient they don't need the physical abacus anymore they can just visualise it and do some amazingly rapid calculations.

Interesting you should say that, Kim.

DS plays chess and, like many competitive activities, there are some children who are shockingly pushed by parents and coaches. I'm talking about the children who are shouted at for losing a game, who are entered for multiple classes and competitions. There are also those who are so competitive, they will stoop to cheating.

What I have seen is that many of these children who are intensively coached don't actually learn how to play. They're tutored on how to win competitions.
As they get older, and come up against children who really do have a talent for the game and can think around situations and play unconventionally, they begin to lose games, lose interest, and drop out altogether as other interests take over.

DS loves chess and enjoys it. We have been very careful not to push him. He'll be playing into his dotage, I'm sure. I don't think many of the children he met in his earlier years will, and it's a shame.

I thought Hugo's family had a really healthy approach to him in general.They tried as much as they could to have balance in his life.Was about the trumpet playing leading to a shag when he was older.

Charlie?getting sick in the car.No amount of editing can take away from the fact that the child was getting sick with nerves and asked not to do it and he was talked into doing it anyway.

Tanith, my ds likes to play chess as well but he now plays at a higher level than me (not difficult as I'm not very good and lose concentration after about 3 moves). Do you use any online resources, if so which ones have you found to be good?

I haven't seen the programme itself but did see a news clip advertising it with a mum and her train spotting little boy. I was surprised by some of her comments, one in which she stated other mums usually feel sorry for her/grateful that he isn't theirs.
This was said half jokingly and the little boy seemed to shrug it off but I just wouldn't say such a thing in front of my child or on national tv, no matter how clever he is and how much I think he will understand such nuances.
I really don't think TV programmes like this are a good idea and find them exploitative.

And the award for the daftest comment goes to choccoluvvva

At least the girls are doing better than the boys mostly!

Ooh - I've never had a MN award before - will there be a ceremony?

If you want to play chess then chess.com is the place to go. You get rated on your wins/losses so naturally end up at the right level. It's not really a social activity though and you probably won't learn as much as a good chess club but at least you can play lots of games whenever it suits you.

I thought chess boy's mother bullied him into continuing. He clearly didn't want to. How can a little 8 year old stand up to a force like that woman. Coincidently I thought the judge was very kind to him as the question he got right seemed to me to have been slipped in for his benefit.

Hugo was wonderful and reminded me of my DS at that age.

I have seen similar parental behaviour on the football field / poolside / badminton court. Berating a child who has played hard but lost. .
Maybe I'm too soft but my motto has always been that there are many things in life you have to do, winning competitions isn't one of them.

Rollmops - nice to see the girls doing well at maths in particular. (often considered to be a 'male' subject).

yetanotherworry

These days, DS is on Chess.com and chessgames.com and he recommends both. They are accessed by adults so we monitor his use but really this lot are chess-mad and don't seem remotely interested in grooming, or even bothered that he's a child - they "talk" to him as an equal and a fellow chess enthusiast.

It's worth trying to find a local team. I think the English Chess Federation have a list of junior clubs - try www.englishchess.org.uk

Oh, and books! DS found out, aged 8, that there were books about chess.
He has since read practically everything he can lay his hands on: Fischer, Seirawan, Nimzovitsch, Pritchard - you name it!

I can't play either and the books might just as well be written in Hebrew or Greek so far as I'm concerned

Chess mum should be investigated IMO.
Dear little chap looked really emotionally abused and poorly.

Interestingly Hugo's parents said they entered him because a friend suggested they were downplaying his abilities too much, he certainly didn't seem nervous by the contest at all. Plus he seems to spend a lot of time doing things he generally loves.

The boy who played chess on the other hand... If he's playing chess for 50 hours a week, when does he have time for anything else?

I also thought the Shindiri (sp?) mum, while pleased with her daughter's abilities, was concerned about her daughter being lonely, she mentioned making friends as a reason for her daughter to be in the contest.

Joshua (chess boy), gorgeous kid! But when you're eight years old and have a self help mumbo jumbo list pinned to the wall to help you deal with your anxiety, perhaps your parents need to take a look at themselves. I felt very sad for him at the competition, he was deathly pale and terrified.

Oooh I am just watching this now... Guilty pleasure that I'm hoping I won't get too upset by!

When I was younger I had all sorts of crazy ideas of engineering a genius kid... So glad I didn't have a baby then to do it to :) I care so much more about self esteem and love and security and confidence... Everything else is a lovely bonus. I think I was so obsessed with the idea of making a clever kid as I grew up lacking the above, and thought for a very long time that academic genius was the only way to get appreciation or love...

My ds has had a lucky escape in my view :)

What I found interesting was the fact that none of the children (that I noticed) seemed bothered about meeting children as "clever" as they are. They want to be around others who they feel comfortable they can beat or feel superior too. They don't have any resilience (apart from possibly the Chinese kid whose Dad went about it in his own cack handed way) and will get a terrible shock when they come across people who are better at things than them.

blueemerald, I don't think that's an issue with the kids. My ds is quite bright to the extent where he is top in his class for most things - we find its a problem because at the moment, he doesn't struggle at all and he doesn't really lose at academic things. He does chess at school and is one of the best so he rarely loses. He entered a chess competition a couple of weeks ago and I could tell the point at which he realised he'd lost his final game because his face crumpled because he's just not used to losing (but he managed to hold himself together and finish the game).
The only real experience of not being the best he gets is through his sports but then because he does a lot of team sports, its never 'him' who loses but the team.

4x4 I agree chess boy looked a wreck.

I'd be seriously worried if any of my dc were that anxious.

Yes I couldn't do that to my child, he looked so anxious and unsure and just wanted to run away. I understand that once he'd entered it was better for him to have done the afternoon too so he can look back and know he went through with it... But she was referring to other times when he'd got that anxious. I wouldn't have exposed him to another situation like that if I knew he'd be so scared. I just wanted to give him a hug poor thing!