Erik Hoel wrote a series of articles 1, 2, 3 on how aristocrats raised geniuses.
The series makes for an interesting comparison to Scott Alexander's articles such as Book Review: Raise A Genius!. Scott has also offered criticism of Erik's first article. I cite Scott here mostly due to his relevancy to the history of this site.
I don't have kids, but when I do I'd like to homeschool and maximize (with restraint and compassion) for producing genius.
What I found most interesting (in Hoel's third article) was his "key ingredients" for raising an aristocratic genius:
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(a) the total amount of one-on-one time the child has with intellectually-engaged adults
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(b) a strong overseer who guides the education at a high level with the clear intent of producing an exceptional mind
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(c) plenty of free time, i.e., less tutoring hours in the day than traditional school
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(d) teaching that avoids the standard lecture-based system of memorization and testing and instead encourages discussions, writing, debates, or simply overviewing the fundamentals together
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(e) in these activities, it is often best to let the student lead (e.g., writing an essay or poetry, or learning a proof)
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(f) intellectual life needs to be taken abnormally seriously by either the tutors or the family at large
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(g) there is early specialization of geniuses, often into the very fields for which they would become notable
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(h) at some point the tutoring transitions toward an apprenticeship model, often quite early, which takes the form of project-based collaboration, such as producing a scientific paper or monograph or book
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(i) a final stage of becoming pupil to another genius at the height of their powers
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Notes -
My fantasy vanity project if my business projects work out to 90th+ percentile expectations in 10 years: I'd like to take a couple of rental properties my family owns in the immediate area of our home off the market, and offer them as an "artist in residence" deal to grads from my/mywife's alma mater. Want to take a year to write your novel or work on your portfolio? Free room and board, with minor responsibilities to tutor my kids in art and literature, and brighten up my dinner parties. Of course this fantasy would be an order of magnitude more expensive as I think it would, nor would any college artist actually be interested in doing it.
Homeschooling is more and more appealing these days, and I like to think i could raise really interesting kids this way. We'll see how I feel as they grow up though, I guess.
The homeschooling movement has gotten far more sophisticated than in the 90’s. They have guest lecturers, various socialization and group learning activities, and field trips. Check your local homeschooling group.
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