24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sincere and Well Meant, August 18, 2000
This review is from: Accidental Genius (Paperback)
The Kearney's present an honest and heartfelt picture of their struggles to raise a profoundly gifted child. Unfortunately, they proceed to make recommendations based solely on their personal experience.
They wrongly assume that they are responsible for Michael's amazing mental development, being unaware that there have been many others like him, and that such prodigality is inborn.
They also equate learning with intellectual development and feel that by allowing Michael to learn as much as he wants and as fast as he wants, they have fulfilled his intellectual needs.
They also present their plan as the ideal solution, offering no alternatives for parents who may want something more substantive for their child than rushing through the educational system.
This has been an extremely controversial book in discussions among parents of profoundly gifted children. Those who wish to allow intellectual, emotional, and physical maturity a chance to develop in an integrated way are generally highly critical. Parents who are eager to see their children move as swiftly as possible through their schooling, possibly setting records along the way, and saving themselves money as a side benefit of college compaction, praise the book highly.
I see it as an interesting personal memoir that has become undeservedly influential.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
good bibliography but shallow biography, November 17, 2000
This review is from: Accidental Genius (Paperback)
This is a description of what the parents of Michael Kearney did in the first 11 years of their high IQ son. And it is just that. "And then....and then ... and then) It suffers greatly from the flatness of the (description of the) persons involved, the lack of emotional insight in Michael, the repetition in the actions (they fight a lot of the same fights with a different schools, they do a lot of brain stimulation at home), the lack of inspiration, and the fact that it describes only the first 11 years of this boy's life. Actually it's less a book about the boy, then it is about the parents. Beside that: it may look like a 200 page book. But since the space between the lines is twice as large as normal, it actually is just a 100 page book.
On the upside: especially Michael early years (0 to 3) are fun to read, because some of his progress is really incredible. And most important: the book ends with a large bibliography on giftedness.
But all in all, it's quite a lot of money for just a little bit of information.
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41 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
"Accidental Parents" is a better title, June 27, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Accidental Genius (Paperback)
I initially read this book because I have always felt that school was a place that encouraged conformity and regression toward the mean, rather than socialization and creative thinking. Toward that end, I ordered "Accidental Genius", the story of an incredibly precocious child whose parents battle a school system inequipped to deal with prodigious child minds and parents committed to children's well being.
The book, however, was a large disappointment. First, I have a very hard time getting past Cassidy Kearney's self-reported tale of what amounts to in-vitro child abuse. During her pregnancy with Michael, she refused to eat following a doctor's seemingly innocuous admonition to her to watch her weight in her second trimester of pregnancy. She even states that her vanity impeded her from stopping this behavior, despite the fact that she developed toxemia, was warned that she might lose the pregnancy, and was risking the mental and physical health of the child if indeed he/she would be born. Tired of his patient's narcissm, the doctor induced Cassidy almost two months early, and malnourished, jaundiced Michael was born. Cassidy makes another comment that she wanted the pregnancy to be over so she could remain thin and not have to worry about battling others to eat. SICKENING!! As someone who cannot have children, I find her selfish behavior repugnant to the point of being criminal.
The book continues with Cassidy's "Don't bother me" mode of parenting. Despite the fact that her child beat the medical odds in the most miraculous of ways, she continues to whine and complain, labeling him "severely" gifted as one would label a child "severely autistic" or "severely disabled". She constantly reiterates how exhausted she was in raising both Michael and his equally precocious sister Megan [sic]. The burden of raising these gifted children became so great that her husband Kevin was summoned home from his job in the military to aid in the great undertaking of raising these children. One day in a store, for example, Cassidy sees other children having tantrums and admits while Michael "annoyed" her at times, at least he didn't act like THAT. Umm, should we add Dr. Spock to the bibliography, maybe? This is all part of what you deal with as a mother or father! While child rearing is no doubt the hardest job there is, isn't this a bit histrionic? Surely these gifted children had boundless energy, endless questions and questioned authority. But considering the way Michael was treated (or mistreated) in the womb (and considering Megan (sp?) had health problems that had nothing to do with her mother), shouldn't this state of exhaustion be replaced with more gratitude?
The story is candidly written and honest, and I appreciate that. However, the tale is replete with all things cerebral and has little affect. We get a great sense of the hours the parents spent advocating and nourishing their intellect, often in the face of the jealousy, ignorance and misconception of others. This is laudable and the best part of the book that parents of other gifted children can learn from. However, despite assertions to the contrary, I fail to see where anyone ministered to these children's souls. A good example of this is an account where Michael, still practically an infant, was standing beside an obese woman in a grocery store (I believe) who was purchasing some ice cream. Michael then vociferated his thoughts that this woman was, "enormous" and shouldn't consume the confection. Michael later learned that he should whisper rather than shout these things, which clearly embarrassed his parents. What is frightening is that this account is told as an example of his giftedness. Whispering cruel things about a fat person was seen as a benevolent alternative to screaming them out; no one ever discussed that these statements were cruel and should be refrained from (despite the contention that gifted children were replete with a quality called "moral courage").
In summary, the book is an excellent chronicle of parents who nourish the mind of an incredible child and serve as his tireless advocate. I did not feel that Michael was pushed to learn. He was encouraged to explore his own potential which he not only enjoyed but demanded. Again, I laud the Kearneys for working to fight a school system that just can't handle a child who is smarter than the adults who run the system. This aspect of the book, as well as the well-developed bibliography at the end, is commendable indeed.
As a book, "Accidental Genius" suffers from a good degree of sexism (more attention is paid to Michael than his equally capable sibling), flatness of narrative, and lack of emotion. It's hard to read the message when you've got a messenger that does a lot of complaining. Anyone who can't have a child or has a disabled child knows what real exhaustion, pain and struggle are. The woes of teaching your toddler algebra pale in comparison. Get over it.
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