| | I started reading the ingredients off cereal boxes and condiment bottles during meals at age four. I read Asimov and Sagan and Encyclopedias until age 13. I went to both the school and the township library weekly. I have a very active brain, I am an insomniac, and it is very hard for me not to think. (Seven out of eight of my great-grandparents were drunks - I think due to overactive minds.) Reading calms me down. I always have at hand at least one text on History/Archaeology, one on on Linguistics, one on Biology, one on Philosophy, and some book of fiction at any one time. I read about 100pp per day on average.
Frankly, I think there is something genetic in Danes that makes them intellectuals and natural linguists. (Also, I am likely 1/8 Askenazi Jewish.) All my Danish ancestors were multilingual. I was exposed to Ruthenian and Spanish at a young age. It also helps that I was brought up by rational parents who spoke to me as an adult, that my father was Jesuit schooled and had the idea of a Renaissance man in mind for me as a child. He taught me the rudiments of algebra and valence chemistry as a second grader. My parents never once refused to explain any question I put to them or ever implied that questions don't have answers. Finally, As a bisexual raised in a multilingual environment I was always passionate about the philosophy and biology of human nature and also about phenomena that show evolutionary development over time, whether that be organisms, languages, corporations, nations, religions or other entities that can be described using family tree diagrams. Although I was a freethinker at 13 and an atheist at 16 I attended Mass weekly and paid strict attention to the readings and sermons and performed on them what Rand called Philosophical Detection. Not only could I tell you exactly what the priest had said, I could also tell you where he was right and where he must be wrong.
To me what is most important is not native talent - of which I do have a lot - but how a child is taught to use what he has and how as an adult one never accepts an answer unless one fully understands and integrates it into his entire scope of knowledge. Memorization without integration is the mind destroyer. Again, there's quite a huge amount of things that I don't know, but I do know my limits and I know where to look if I need to. I think most people's potential as a child is much higher than society pretends. Much of growing up seems to consist in self-censorship and killing one's curiosity in order to fit in. Many people are whizzes at sports trivia or other matters. Even they don't shut their minds off entirely - they just channel their energies into less threatening and less fruitful matters.
I very much appreciate the compliment.
Ted Keer
(Edited by Ted Keer on 8/03, 8:28am)
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