Prodigies and the push to excel

Her father, she finds in her book, was like many parents of gifted children, operating in what she dubs an "age of economic anxiety." Some parents see gifted children as some sort of insurance as they try to navigate the middle class without a safety net, Quart said. With so much competition for everything from the best summer camps to permanent jobs, children are working harder than ever to achieve and so are their parents, as they use their gifted child to attain class mobility or to ensure the family's place in the social strata, she writes.

Quart names this pressure to achieve the "Icarus Effect," after the story of Icarus, in Greek mythology. Icarus' father, Daedalus, was an inventor who supplied Icarus with artificial wings made of wax and feathers and warned his son not to fly too high or low. Of course, he flew too high, the wings melted and he fell to the sea.

While Quart never fell into the sea, she said she struggled with a "distinct feeling of failure" as she grew older, in part because of the high expectations placed on her.

But on the flip side, she says, her childhood made her the person she is today: a writer.

"In a lot of ways, I had a wonderful childhood. My father made me who I am; he was incredibly intellectually generous," she said.

"I felt special and I had a confidence in myself. It really is a blessing and a curse."

Quart believes it is important that gifted children remain in the public school system, but notes that at the same time gifted programs at public schools across the country are being cut dramatically.