So You Want Your Child/Student to be Famous?

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So You Want Your Child/Student to be Famous?

• Ted Goertzel

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Why?

• To realize your own frustrated ambitions?
• To help them realize theirs?
• Because it is a side-effect of helping them to
  achieve other goals?
• Famous people are not, on average, happier than
  other people
• Nor do they necessarily contribute more to
  society

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Fame Depends on Interests

• Outstanding actors, athletes, musicians and
  writers become famous
• Outstanding dentists, accountants and undertakers
  do not
• with Doc Holliday as the exception that proves
  the rule

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Pushing kids may make life difficult for them
But it may also get results
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Our research is also often supportive of pushy
parents. So long as they push their children
where they want to go. Facilitating parent
might be a better term Often the best pushing
is by example
Reading Cradles may give you ideas for a pathway
to eminence that might suit your child.
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Worlds Pushiest Mother?

• Douglas MacArthurs mother was his only teacher
  until he was thirteen
• She moved to be near him when he went to West
  Point, walked with him on flirtation walk
• She went with him to the Philippines in 1935
  because he was reluctant to leave her

Mary Pinkney (Pinky) MacArthur
His father, General Arthur MacArthur
Douglas at West Point
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Parent as facilitator or coach
Tiger Woods father solved practical problems
such as access to golf courses that - a boy
simply could not have resolved on his own.
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Pablo Casals

• His mother took him from a small town to
  Barcelona for lessons
• He had no dreams of becoming a great artist
• They suffered poverty in Brussels and Paris to
  advance his career
• His mother had to sell her hair to raise funds

His mother and his first teacher, Jose Garcia
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Yo Yo Ma

• Taught by his father
• Took up the cello because his older sister played
  the violin
• First concert at age five, parents limited his
  appearances
• Credited his fathers lessons in solfeggio and
  Gregorian chants in Church for inspiration
• Studied with Leonard Rose at the Julliard School
• He skipped non-music classes until put in an
  accelerated program.

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Oprah Winfrey

• Pushed hard by grandmother when very small
• Bussed in to a suburban school
• Rescued and pushed by her father
• Encouraged to skip graduate school by a college
  teacher

Buffeted by positive and negative pushing
throughout her childhood and adolescence.
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• Margaret Sangers father was a follower of
  evolutionist Charles Darwin and agnostic lawyer
  Robert Ingersoll
• He was a socialist activist and a stonecutter and
  was away from home a lot.
• Her mother was a devout Catholic who had 18
  pregnancies and 11 live births before dying of
  tuberculosis and cervical cancer

Pushing by example
Neighbors called Margaret and her siblings the
Children of the Devil
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Pushing by example
Buffalo Bill Codys father, Isaac Cody, was an
activist in the abolitionist movement, helping to
move anti-slavery settlers into Kansas. His
family attributed his death to the lasting
effects of a stabbing by a pro-slavery settler.
Buffalo Bill never took any interest in
politics.
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George W.
Zeb

• George W. Bush followed an exceptionally
  accomplished father
• His parents displayed remarkable forbearance,
  allowing him to live his own life as a young
  bachelor.
• Death of his little sister a major family trauma.

George W. Bush I cant exaggerate to you what
wonderful parents George and Barbara Bush were.
They were liberating people. There was never
that oppressiveness you see with other parents,
never the idea that their way was the only way.
Pushing by example
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Hillary Clinton

• Her mother had been neglected and abused
• She succeeded in her determination not to pass
  the chain of abuse on to her children
• Hillary had a happy experience in school,
  participating in many extra-curricular activities

Hugh, Hillary, Hugh, Jr., and Dorothy
Pushing by example
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• Richard Feynmans father started teaching him
  science when he was in his high chair
• He gave him colored blocks of different sizes and
  shapes to organize and analyze
• Scientists often had happier childhoods than
  other eminent people

Parent as facilitator or coach
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An excellent practical, research based, guide to
nurturing creativity.
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Piirtos Pyramid of Talent Development
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It starts with the genes. You cant change the
genes, but you can observe and test to find a
childs strengths.
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The emotional factors are strongly influenced by
early childhood the preschool years
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Personality Attributes Cited in the Literature

• Androgyny
• Creativity
• Imagination
• Insight
• Openness
• A Sense of Naivete
• Overexcitability
• Passion for work in a domain

• Perceptiveness
• Perfectionism
• Resilience
• Risk-taking Propensity
• Self-discipline
• Self-efficacy
• Tolerance of ambiguity
• Volition or Will

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Internal Locus of Control

• Personality attributes are inborn
• But they can also be nurtured or even taught
• A child is more likely to achieve eminence if he
  or she has an internal locus of control
• We can facilitate this when we find it
• But it cannot be imposed

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A minimum level of intellectual competence is
necessary, depending on the area of achievement
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Talent is the tip of the Piirto pyramid it
is the ability to apply abilities, emotions and
learning in a specific area
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Recognizing Talent

• Exceptional performance
• Predictive behaviors
• extensive, passionate reading may predict talent
  as a writer
• collecting baseball statistics may predict
  mathematical talents
• Talent is expressed with tools provided by the
  culture, often by the school

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The final ingredient is what the Greeks called a
muse, what Jung calls an archetypal passion
Piirto calls it the Thorn in the Side
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The Thorn in the Side

• Talent is not enough
• The thorn in the side is a passion that engrosses
• The thorn pushes people through a period of
  incubation in which the talent matures
• This may involve course work or training or
  lessons, depending on the nature of the talent

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The Suns are Piirtos metaphor for the
environmental factors that nurture the creative
individual
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The Sun of Family and Community in Cradles of
Eminence

• Small town, rural or exurban upbringing
• Love of learning in the home
• Restless, energetic parents
• Opinionated parents
• Parents with frustrated aspirations
• In some cases, parents who devote their lives to
  their children
• Others were actively discouraged by at least one
  parent

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The Sun of School in Cradles of Eminence

• Dislike of routinized learning
• Opportunities for self-directed learning
• Sometimes home schooled or tutored
• Laboratory and computer facilities
• Extra-curricular activities and clubs

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Dorothy Baker author, Missoula Dirk Benedict
actor, Helena W. A. Tony Boyle labor union
official, Bald Butte Dana Carvey comedian,
Missoula Gary Cooper actor, Helena Mike
Mansfield, Senator, Great Falls Chet Huntley
journalist, TV newscaster, Cardwell Will James
writer, artist, Great Falls Evel Knievel
daredevil motorcyclist, Butte Jerry Kramer
football player, author, Jordan Myrna Loy
actress, Helena David Lynch filmmaker,
Missoula George Montgomery actor, Brady Jeannette
Rankin first woman elected to Congress,
Missoula Martha Raye actress, Butte Michael Smuin
choreographer Lester C. Thurow economist,
educator, Livingston Norman Maclean,
writer Thomas McGuane, writer, from Mcleod,
alcoholic father
Some fruit of the Montana Sun
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