Gifted Children

Being raised to be exceptional can cause exceptional problems; Alissa Quart should know. The 34-year-old author of a new book "Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child," Quart read at age 3 and wrote her first novel when she was 7. In her book, she argues that today's parents' need to enrich children with special classes, jammed-packed schedules and learning tools can leave a lasting legacy. And not one the parents had in mind.

At 5 our son, Alex, demanded to be taught about percentages so he could better understand the Times Business section. Due to stories such as the ones presented in "Struggling to Teach the Very Brightest" (Oct. 17), we avoided L.A. Unified and used a private school. We quickly learned that for Alex, school was for day care, social interaction and play. Academics for our son happened in the evenings and on weekends. After the birth of our daughter, Melissa (who is also unusually bright)

Even though Phil Graziano has been to more music rehearsals than he can count, there is something unique about his latest ones. As he raised a white plastic recorder to his lips Thursday, nine children blew into theirs, out of tune and out of sync, but full of enthusiasm as they broke into a screeching rendition of "Jingle Bells."

When Eugene Volokh was 9 years old, his father sought out Michel Melkanoff at UCLA. "My son's a genius," Vladimir Volokh told the UCLA professor. "I've heard that before," Melkanoff replied. "He's studying differential equations on his own," the father said. "Now that's interesting," Melkanoff conceded. Eugene Volokh was 12 when he matriculated at UCLA in 1980.

Gov. Pete Wilson has included in his proposed budget a plan to change a kindergarten admission requirement so that children must be 5 by Sept. 1, rather than by the current Dec. 1 deadline. That means that about 25% of the children who would ordinarily begin kindergarten in the next month or two might have to wait until next year. It all brings to mind a question in educational philosophy: Does waiting a year make a difference in a child's ability to learn or in her future academic career?

Jean B. Trapnell, a former member of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges and a veteran English professor at Los Angeles Valley College, died Aug. 13 at her Westwood home. She was 80 and had cancer. Then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed her in 1975 to a four-year term on the board, which sets policy for the state's two-year schools. For 17 years before that appointment she was an English teacher at Valley College and chairman of the department from 1959 to 1962.

When she sent her son to kindergarten, Cathy Silva expected the bright, happy child to flourish, getting lots of A's, making friends and competing in sports. But by the end of first grade, Russell wanted to drop out. By second grade, he was literally sick of school. "It was just boring," said Russell, now 10. "In math, they'd spend two weeks working on something I'd learned in a day." Russell could read 120-page novels and do complex mathematics in his head when he was 7.

Justin Clark's mother held his hand when she walked him to his first class at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster three years ago. On Friday night, Justin, 13, donned a cap and gown and joined his fellow students in commencement exercises to become the youngest student ever to receive a degree from the college, earning high honors to boot, school officials said.